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THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE 
COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON 
TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS 

(PRESENTED BY MRS. DINWIDDIE) 


















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THE 


GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


S. B. CHASE, P. R. W. G. T. 


AND 


HISTORY OF THE 

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF GOOD 
TEMPLARS. 


S. D. HASTINGS, P. R. W. G. T. 


Mauston, Wisconsin: 

Right Worthy Grand Lodge, Independent Order Good Templars. 
B. F. Parker, R. W. G. Secretary. 

1888. 


Entered according *o Act of Congress, in vhe jtar 1870, by 
S. B. CHASE, 


In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States in and 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 


* 3 

f « 

Gift ' ‘ 

MRS. Edwin C. Dmwidtfe 
Aug. 6. 1935 


PRESS OF 

IKE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION HOUSE, 
5» READE STREET, NEW YORK. 


INTRODUCTION, 


To all Good Templars : 

The following articles were prepared while the 
author was “on the wing,” in the discharge of the 
duties of G. W. C. T. of Pennsylvania, and first 
published in the Keystone Good Templar , the offi- 
cial organ of the Grand Lodge. Written at depots 
while waiting for trains, with our hat for a writing- 
desk, and here and there as we could catch a few 
moments of leisure, there was no time or oppor- 
tunity to revise or elaborate, so as to make them as 
readable as we could wish. They were intended as 
practical , and no attempt was made at embellish- 
ment. 

The interest taken in these articles by many of 
our members, and pains taken by many Lodges to 
file the numbers of the paper containing them, and 

3 


4 INTR OD UC TION. 

of others to place them in scrap-books for future 
reference, induced their publication in book form. 
Hoping good may come from the circulation of 
« The Good of the Order,” 

I remain, 

In F., H. and C., 

S. B. CHASE, 

P. A- W. G. T. 

Great Bend Village, May 2, 1870. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Discipline 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Discipline — Continued 12 


CHAPTER III. 

Influence. — How to make Lodge meetings interesting. 17 
CHAPTER IV. 


How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Order. . 22 

CHAPTER V. 

Punctuality, promptness, despatch in the transaction 
of business 27 

CHAPTER VI. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Readiness 
to discharge duty. — Exercises under the head of 
“Good of the Order.” — Personal duty 33 

CHAPTER VII. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — News- 
papers, music, etc 41 

CHAPTER VIII. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting.— Regular 
attendance of the members necessary 4S 

CHAPTER IX. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting.— Outside 
work. — Public meetings 53 

1 * 


6 


6 


CONTENTS . 




CHAPTER X, 

PAGE 

Difficulties in Lodges.— What causes them, and the 
results. — Why Lodges fail * 59 


CHAPTER XI. 

Delinquent Lodges. — Damaging influence of getting 
in arrears, both upon members and Lodges 69 

CHAPTER XII. 

Our unwritten work. — Its importance, use, disuse and 
abuse 76 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Good Templars’ obligation. — What it means. — 
Good Templars should not frequent dram-shops. . . 81 


CHAPTER XIV. 

The rights, privileges and duties of deputies 85 

CHAPTER XV. 

Correspondence 93 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Visiting 104 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Balloting for candidates. — Reasons for allowing four 
negative votes to reject 107 

CHAPTER XVIII. 


Influence of deputies. — How it is frequently frittered 
away in idle wrangling or meddlesome interference. Ill 



THE 


GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


CHAPTER I. 


DISCIPLINE. 



‘HERE is no feature of the Good Tern- 


JL plars* work which should be so marked 
with care and charity as the discipline of way- 
ward members ; and yet many of our Lodges 
act as though the great end of our organization 
is to get men to join and secure the fees, and 
then put them out as soon as possible. No 
mistake can be greater. 

A minister in the M. E. Church who had 
committed some act censurable under the 
ecclesiastical law at once went to the bishop, 
with a request that he should have immediate 
steps taken to have him disciplined. His 
bishop mildly told him that the object of the 


7 


8 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


Church was not to throw men out, but to in* 
duce them to unite with and stay in the 
Church, and lead lives worthy of church mem- 
bership ; and that lie had better go back to his 
charge, and thereafter conduct himself so that 
his case would not require church judicatories. 

So our great object should be to induce per- 
sons to join us and to throw around them such 
influences as shall keep them with us. We 
have been in Lodges where all manner of 
charges were being preferred against A., B. 
and C., and some of a very trivial nature in- 
deed. So far as I could judge, no attempt had 
been made to discipline by mild and persuasive 
means. 

Our Constitution and By-Laws prescribe the 
constitutional or legal mode of procedure in 
cases of violation of obligation ; but it is not 
necessary the constitutional course should be 
pursued in the first instance. A man may 
commit some trespass on his neighbor, for the 
redress of which he has his remedy in a suit 
at law ; but if they be Christian neighbors, it 
would be thought unchristian to resort to his 
suit before any effort had been made at an 
amicable settlement. 

Let us, brothers and sisters, exhaust every 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


9 


mild and charitable means for the restoration 
of violators before resorting to the constitu- 
tional. As soon as it is known or suspected a 
member has been violating the obligation, let 
some member go at once, and, in a friendly 
and fraternal conversation, try to induce such 
member to come into Lodge and state all the 
facts in the case, and, if deemed a violation, be 
re-obligated at once, and submit to such other 
punishment as the Lodge may require. If no 
one will volunteer to do this, let the Lodge 
appoint judicious members and those best 
adapted to such a work for such purpose. 

Generally, accused members led by such in- 
fluences will acknowledge all they have done, 
humbly ask forgiveness of the Lodge, and 
meekly submit to its punishment; whereas, if 
a written charge is preferred in the first in- 
stance, they think it uncharitable, their pride 
is aroused, and they are prepared to defend 
the charge to the last extremity, and, if finally 
expelled, a large number of friends go with 
them in sympathy, if not in person. 

Again, our Lodges often commit real in- 
justice by following too rigidly the legal course 
as laid down in our Digest, forgetting that 
they are both court and jury to determine 


IO 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


whether the law applies to the particular case 
in hand. 

Take the following instance of discipline, 
where the Lodge supposed it must pursue the 
constitutional course, without exercising any 
judgment as to whether the cases were both 
violations or not. 

A. was charged with drinking sweet cider, 
and, in answer to charge, said he had drunk 
it and would continue to do so when he pleased, 
and the Lodge might help itself. The same 
charge w r as preferred against B., who, in 
answer, said that, one day while making cider 
(he was a farmer) at the press, he inadvert- 
ently, and without any intention of violating 
his pledge as a Good Templar, drank a very 
small quantity, but, though he regretted the 
act and would not repeat it, he did not con- 
sider that he had violated his obligation, and 
would not be re-obligated. He was a valuable 
temperance man, and, of course, our Order 
needed his aid. 

The result was, the Lodge, in its pursuit of 
a strictly legal course, because both had drunk 
sweet cider, treated both cases alike, and ex- 
pelled them, thus for ever losing the influence 
of B. to our Order. There was no parallel in 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


II 


these cases. A. ought to have been severely 
dealt with, and expulsion was undoubtedly 
proper, because he placed himself in defiance 
of the Lodge and its laws ; but in the other 
case, if the Lodge, knowing the character of 
B., really believed he did it inadvertently and 
would not repeat it, might have passed a vote 
that the act of Bro. B. be considered not a 
violation, and thus saved him. The Lodge 
could not find him guilty and then excuse 
him, because our laws forbid it ; and probably 
the brother would not have remained in the 
Lodge if such a course had been taken. 

Recollect that the law can only be laid 
down in general terms, and that the Lodge, 
being acquainted with the character of the 
members and circumstances attending the par- 
ticular case, is to determine whether the law 
applies to the case or not ; and members 
should act as though they felt this responsi- 
bility, and not forget that one great cbject 
in discipline is to keep and save, rather than 
turn out and lose. 





CHAPTER II. 


DISCIPLINE. — CONTINUED. 

HE inquiry is often made of me, How 



X many times I would re-obligate a mem- 
ber who has violated his obligation? Briefly, 

I answer, just as many times as such member 
manifests sorrow for the violation and a deter- 
mination to be faithful in the future. Toward 
those who have joined us from pure motives 
and with bona jide intention to try to reform 
we cannot exercise too much charity ; but, on 
the contrary, when we are satisfied that a 
member under, or who is liable to, charge, 
never joined from laudable motives, nor had 
any sincere desire to keep his obligation, we 
canrot manifest too much despatch in en- 
foicing our discipline. 

Sometimes individuals join us because they 
are sent in by our enemies to spy out our plan 
of operations and bring us into disrepute, and 
thus accomplish on the inside what the most 


12 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 1 3 

violent opposition on the outside never could 
effect — namely, the dissolution or demoraliza- 
tion of the Lodge. Of course, all such will 
violate the pledge as soon as possible, for in 
no other way can they so effectually bring the 
Lodge into disrepute. The disparaging in- 
fluence of one violation upon a Lodge, what 
human arithmetic can estimate it? 

Generally, members of this class, when an 
attempt is made to discipline them, are very 
obstinate, will interpose every obstacle pos- 
sible, and are ready “ to fight it out on this 
line’* and defend to the last extremity. Such 
I would not re-obligate, but discipline and sus- 
pend or expel as soon as possible, that the 
wound may not have a chance to spread and 
infect the whole body. Indeed, if you have 
evidence that such came in for the purpose of 
subjecting the Lodge to ridicule or breaking it 
up, I would at once deal with and cut them 
off before they have had time to otherwise 
violate our obligation. 

The re-obligation is administered by the 
W. C. Templar, and in open Lodge. Mem- 
bers have sometimes refused to be re-obligated 
in open Lodge, but have expressed a willing- 
ness to be if it could be done by W. C. T. in 
2 


14 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


private or before a committee. The uniform 
Constitution, sec. 6 of Art. 8, requires it to be 
done openly. See Digest, 7th edition, p. 48. 

Considerable difficulty is experienced from 
our Lodges so often inflicting the penalty of 
expulsion, even for non-payment of dues. Ap- 
plications are frequently made to me for dis- 
pensations to initiate expelled members before 
the expiration of the time required by the 
Constitution, assigning as a reason therefor 
that such person’s safety is dependent upon 
his being received again into our organization. 
Of course, there is no power to relieve in 
these cases, as dispensations cannot be granted 
to do an unconstitutional act. Although, under 
the terms of the Uniform Code, now in force 
in this State, only three months must elapse 
before an expelled person can be proposed 
and initiated, still it would be better to simply 
suspend indefinitely, in all cases, for non-pay- 
ment of dues, or for any offence not very 
flagrant, instead of expelling; as the former 
just as effectually cuts oft' such disciplined 
members from participation in the meetings 
of the organization, and they occupy a posi- 
tion where the disability can be removed at 
any time by a vote of the Lodge, and their 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. I*j 

former relations to the Order be at once re- 
sumed. As a general rule, in all cases where 
two doors are open through which the goal 
of discipline can be reached, let us walk 
through the one which will the most readily 
fly open when we wish to retrace our steps. 

It appears strange to many that, with all 
the restraining influences surrounding our or- 
ganization, so many who have been addicted 
to the artificial stimulus should be unable to 
keep their obligation of total abstinence. The 
fault is not altogether our failure to discipline 
wisely. It is not altogether because we are 
too “ harsh,” or because our membership is 
not faithful, though many are lost because we 
do not extend our fraternal sympathies in the 
time of need ; but the great difficulty lies in 
the fact that our members who have been 
slaves of the intoxicating bowl do not abandon 
their old haunts of dissipation and former com- 
panions. The laws of association are such 
that even to enter a place where we have been 
wont to get intoxicating beverages brings back 
the tempter with all his terrible power for 
destruction. The old companions of our vices 
are anxious to pull us along with them, and 
our first attempt to break away from their 


l6 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


snares is a signal for all to unite in efforts to 
prevent our escape from the maelstrom of 
death. With my present views, if ever again 
privileged to prepare an obligation for our 
Order, after the present pledge, I would add, 
“ And you also promise for ever to abandon 
all your old associates and all places where 
intoxicating beverages are soldi ’ This would 
strike a key-note that would lead our brothers 
to a successful reformation. 









CHAPTER III. 


INFLUENCE. — HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEET* 
INGS INTERESTING. 


OOD TEMPLARS are reputed to be a 



V_T 'working temperance organization ; and 
hence we are expected to occupy advanced 
ground on all questions connected with the 
temperance reform, and to mark out plans of 
action in this work, not only for our own or- 
ganization, but for other friends of the cause 
outside who are willing and anxiously waiting 
to turn in and aid us. The splendor of our 
fashionable saloons is never tarnished, and 
their attractive lights are never suffered to go 
out. Years ago I saw a bright light in a cer- 
tain grog-shop, which always burned until 
early dawn, and now the same light is there, 
still kept burning in the same position. So 
our Lodges ought to be possessed not only of 
vitality, but their lights, like the vestal fires of 
antiquity, should be always burning. Then, 
2 * 17 


l8 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

as so much is expected of us, and we are to be 
the aggressive temperance organization, we 
must labor to increase our influence. 

This can be done in two ways — by waking 
up and energizing our own membership, and 
also by going out and carrying our principles 
among others and inducing them to come in 
with us, the last being the natural result of the 
first. As to having a revival of religion, it is 
necessary to commence it in the hearts of be- 
lievers, so we will consider first how we can 
wake up and energize our membership. 

This must principally be done in our Lodge 
meetings. We ought to render the meetings 
of our organization so interesting that mem- 
bers will never leave them without feeling 
that they have been made better by having 
attended. 

The question, How can we make our Lodge 
meetings interesting? is often asked; and, as 
the key-note to our success as an organization, 
we will give our views, in answer to the in- 
quiry, in this and subsequent articles. 

As the first requisite to make our meeting 
interesting, we must have a pleasant and at- 
tractive place of meeting, so that our members 
will become interested in the Lodge-room. It 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 19 

should be comfortably and attractively fur- 
nished, easy seating, carpet or matting foi the 
floor, pictures and pleasant walls for the eye, 
well heated and ventilated, and commodious, 
the dimensions being adapted to the numbers 
which will generally occupy it. Let it be not 
too large, for a few members in a very large 
hall makes a meeting seem cold and cheerless. 
Our natures are so sympathetic that we must 
be near together if we would have interesting 
meetings. 

A young lad of our Order once said to me, 
after attending a meeting in a pleasant and 
nicely fitted up Lodge-room, that he wished 
he could attend meeting there always. “Why ?” 
I asked. Oh, because they have such a 
splendid place to meet in.” This is the out- 
gushing opinion of a young Good Templar 
who had enjoyed a meeting in an attractive 
room. He volunteered no opinion of the 
exercises of the meeting, because the pleasure 
induced by the surroundings was so great as 
to envelop all else. 

It is our especial object to gather in the 
young and train them in the principles of total 
abstinence : and, as we know they are at- 
tracted by a pleasant place of resort, which 


20 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


our great enemy everywhere furnishes them in 
the gilded, gorgeous saloon where the fiery 
serpent lurks, to turn aside from virtue, entrap 
and ruin, we ought to furnish pleasant and 
socially attractive places where they may fre- 
quent, and have a guaranty that no great arch- 
enemy is concealed within, ready with a syren 
voice to charm its victims on to death. 

Consult good taste in a Lodge-room. We 
must, of course, provide halls proportionate to 
our means ; but extra efforts ought to be made 
to raise funds to fit up a Lodge-room, and 
sacrifices made, if need be, for such purpose. 

Again, we must have efficient and faithful 
officers, always selecting the best members we 
have for the several positions ; and the officers 
should strive to qualify themselves to discharge 
their respective duties as well as possible. 

The membership of a Lodge will never at- 
tain a higher standard of working or interest 
in the Order than that attained by the officers ; 
and if the members see their officers full of life 
and energetic action in our work, they will 
manifest a corresponding degree of vitality, 
energy and faithfulness. Especially is it neces- 
sary to have a presiding officer who is well 
qualified for the position — a well-tried and 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 21 


persistent friend of the cause of temperance, 
and one who commands the respect of the 
Lodge and entire community. If a Lodge, in 
its early history, will exercise great care to 
select competent W. C. Templars — such as 
will enforce our rules and usages and preserve 
strict order — the members will very soon learn 
to pay such deference and respect to the 
opinions and mandates of the chair that, 
though you might happen to have the most 
inexperienced lad or the weakest sister in the 
chair for the time, the same order would be 
preserved and deference paid, because the 
members have learned to respect the posi- 
tion rather than the particular incumbent. 
W. C. T.s have been known to be engaged in 
whispering and laughing with his Supporters 
even during the initiatory ceremonies, when, 
of course, the members followed suit, and thus 
the greatest confusion and disorder charac- 
terize ceremonies which should be as orderly 
and solemn as the prayer-meetings of Chris- 
tian churches. In my next I shall speak of 
Order in our Lodge meetings, and prescribe 
a course of action which will do much to bring 
any Lodge up to a standard of good order 
during its sessions. 



-/ 


' 


CHAPTER IV 


HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING.— ORDER. 



RDER is Nature’s first law.” Not a 


leaf, flower, insect, bird or animal 
exists but bears proof of the existence of this 
law in its very highest state, both in its crea- 
tion, preservation and action. The entire 
planetary system is the object of motion, 
which, regulated by two different attractive 
forces, reduces every movement to the most 
perfect exactness. 

No Lodge can expect to have its meetings 
interesting without good order in the trans- 
action of all its business. The VV. C. T. 
should have a programme or docket, with the 
business of the evening all laid down, the 
name of each committee to report, 'each item 
of unfinished business, and especially, under 
the head of “ Good of the Order,” there should 
be an established order of exercises for the 
evening ; and each member should respond 


22 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 23 


promptly, when called upon, to perform the 
part assigned. 

If we attend a public anniversary or any 
entertainment, where every part io in readi- 
ness as the chairman or master of ceremonies 
makes an announcement, so that no delay en- 
sues, we are interested in it, even though some 
of the exercises might bear criticism, and 
would be exceedingly dull and unentertaining 
if they did not form a part of exercises which 
are being performed with promptness and 
regularity. Anything but this happen-so, 
don’t-know-what’s-coming-next, rather-be-ex- 
cused, waiting-between-exercises, ever- drag- 
ging, dull way of conducting any meeting, 
and especially of a Lodge meeting. Con- 
fusion, dullness and for ever dragging and 
waiting and asking to be excused will destroy 
the leaven in any meeting and the life and 
energy of any Lodge. They may not be as 
rapid in their disastrous effects as is prussic 
acid upon the human system, but none the 
less sure. 

Especially during our initiations must we 
have order and system : no waiting — no mis- 
takes — no laughing — no whispering — nothing 
to distract the attention. The object of this 


24 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


ceremony is to impress; but such object is 
thwarted if the ceremony is not conducted 
with strict decorum. 

A Rev. brother related in my hearing the 
following occurrence, which is in point. He 
was soliciting a person to join the Good 
Templars, when he received the following re- 
ply : “Two years ago I was invited to join 
your organization, consented, was elected, and 
had proceeded as far in the initiation as the 
close of the first paragraph in the obligation, 
when some one in the room burst out in a fit 
of laughter. I was so amazed and grieved 
that the members had no higher appreciation 
of the solemnity of the obligation I was taking, 
and the terrible struggle I had passed through 
before I could make up my mind to pledge 
myself for life to total abstinence, that I wanted 
nothing to do w'ith such an organization, and 
turned and abruptly left the room, and never 
could I be induced since to give my name to 
the Good Templars.” 

This laughter, probably, was inadvertent 
and not designed to produce disorder, and ve* 
the result prov ed none the less disastrous be- 
cause the offspring of carelessness. 

At one of our District Conventions last sum- 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 25 


mer, while this subject was under discussion, 
a brother clergyman said that, when lie was 
initiated, during the obligation some one 
laughed aloud, and it embarrassed and morti- 
fied him exceedingly, as he supposed some- 
thing wrong in his dress or deportment gave 
rise to it; so that the impression which our 
ceremonies are calculated to make upon the 
initiate was lost upon him. 

To bring a Lodge up to a more correct 
standard of working, allow me to suggest the 
critic system which originated in No. 4, and, 
proving successful, has since been tried in 
other Lodges, with like results. The plan is 
this: The W. C. T., at the opening of each 
session, appoints two of the most competent 
members as critics, wdio take pencil and paper, 
and everything occurring during the session 
requiring criticism — such as a wrong signal, 
entering without regalia, incorrect salutation 
or response, errors in pronunciation or emphasis 
while reading or speaking, W. C. T. giving 
unwritten work wrong, whispering, laughing, 
crossing the room while a member is speaking 
or the chair is stating a question, — in short, 
anythin? and everything which is contrary to 
our Constitution, By-Laws, Rules and usages, 
3 


26 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


or good taste, is noted down, and at the close of 
the session they are called upon for a report. 

This report of the critics, especially when 
spiced with a little pleasantry and wit, is ren- 
dered exceedingly interesting, and thus two 
purposes are accomplished : first, you add one 
of the most attractive features to your meet- 
ings, which induces the members to remain 
until adjournment, for each desires to hear the 
report; and you will also, in time, bring your 
Lodge up to a correct standard of working, 
for experience proves that members judiciously 
but faithfully criticized for a mistake or incor- 
rect habits will not repeat the error nor persist 
in the habit. Especially is this the case with 
the young ; and who can estimate the salutary 
effect of this system of criticism upon a young 
lad as in after years he engages in active life, 
free from many faults which, but for these fra- 
ternal criticisms in the Lodge-room, would 
have followed him through life? 

Of course, we must exercise care in our 
selections, as the members appointed must be 
able to command the respect and confidence 
of the Lodge, and the criticisms must be 
strictly impartial and never undeserved, or 
they will not be respected. 



CHAPTER V. 


PUNCTUALITY, PROMPTNESS, DESPATCH IN 
THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 



UNCTUALITY and promptness on the 


X part of officers and committees of a Lodge 
are essential to its efficient working and the 
interest of its meetings.- 

Each Lodge lias a fixed hour of meeting, 
and the W. C. T. should always be on time to 
call the Lodge to order at the precise hour. 
Sometimes when the W. C. T. is promptly in 
attendance, fifteen or twenty minutes elapse 
before the Lodge is called to order, waiting 
for the members to come in. This is erro- 
neous, for the members will never learn punc- 
tuality from such a practice. If the W. C. T. 
himself is tardy, or, being on time, does not 
call his Lodge to order, the members will 
generally consult their own convenience about 
attending. If one has a letter to write and 
post, a call to make, or any chores to do, lie 
generally does them before going to Lodge, 


27 


28 7" HE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


rightly thinking that the W. C. T. will be be- 
hind, and he will be there in ample time even 
if he consults the caprice of convenience. 

On the contrary, if the W. C. T. is prompt 
in attending and calling the Lodge to order at 
the hour , the members will very soon learn 
that, if they would not find the doors closed, 
they must be there at the hour ; and all gene- 
rally prefer to be present during the opening 
exercises. Our membership will learn to be 
on time at our meetings if the example is set 
them by our officers. 

Lodges should also have an hour of adjourn- 
ment, and, when such hour arrives, adjourji , 
unless it may be some special occasion that 
seems to require an extension of the time. 
We have business men connected with our 
Order whose time cannot be given to our 
work unless they can know precisely when 
they are required to meet and when they will 
be able to return from the Lodge. They have 
business engagements, and must stay away 
from us unless our session hours are so definite 
that they can adapt their business engagements 
to them. We need more of this class of men 
in our various localities to come in with us if 
we hope to be successful against alcohol ; but 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 29 


we cannot get them, and we cannot reason- 
ably expect them, if they never know when 
the Lodge is to meet, nor whether they will 
get out at nine and a half or twelve o’clock. 

Irregular hours are especially objectionable 
to parents who have children belonging to our 
organization, and many are deterred from 
granting consent to their children to join us 
in consequence of the lateness of some of our 
sessions. 

An obvious advantage is derived in the 
transaction of our business from a fixed hour 
of adjournment, as we have before us a given 
time in which our work must be done; hence 
no time will be frittered away on non-essen- 
tials ; and certainly our time is too valuable to 
be wasted, and we should avail ourselves of 
every feature calculated to aid us in husband- 
ing it. 

The other officers should be prompt as well 
as the W. C. T., and especially those who 
have charge of the books and property of the 
Lodge. We have been in Lodges where the 
entire membership waited twenty minutes for 
a dilatory Secretary to come in with his books. 
Twenty or thirty business men, the value of 
whose time all well know, waiting the motion 
3 * 


30 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


or convenience of one officer of the Lodge, is 
not only annoying, but positively wrong ; and 
no Lodge can hold these members long in the 
meetings or prosper under such action. In 
some Lodges committees are never ready to 
report when called upon. When the W. C. T. 
calls for leports of Committees of Investiga- 
tion, the Secretary first looks to see who con- 
stitute the committees ; then part are found to 
be absent, and the vacancies have to be filled ; 
then the committees gather around the Secre- 
tary’s table and make out their report, causing 
great confusion, and the Lodge is obliged to 
wait for them to prepare business which should 
have been in readiness before the Lodge was 
called to order. All committees should have 
their reports made out during the week, or 
meet previous to the opening of the Lodge, in 
time to have the reports prepared, so that 
when that order of business is reached busi- 
ness may move on, unruffled by delay, and no 
time wasted. 

In many of our Lodges one-fourth of the 
time is exhausted in tedious waiting and un- 
necessary dragging of business, thus leaving 
little or no time for the good of the Order 
or for devising general plans of action, be- 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 3 1 

sides disgusting the better class of our mem- 
bers at the slowness of our movements. 

In the initiation of candidates especially ‘.s 
this true. Some time since, at one of our Dis- 
trict Conventions, some brother expressed a 
wish that a memorial might be prepared to 
the R. W. G. Lodge asking for an abridgment 
of the Ritual, as the initiation consumed so 
much time as to deter some business men 
from connecting themselves with our organiza- 
tion. I inquired of the brother if he knew how 
much time was required, necessarily, to initiate 
candidates. He replied he did not, but fre- 
quently an hour was consumed on this busi- 
ness in their Lodge. I then stated that the 
committee preparing the present Ritual, and 
other skillful workers in our Order, had timed 
the initiatory ceremony, and twenty minutes 
was all the time necessarily required in per- 
forming the ceremony. Now, how is so much 
time consumed? It is in the officers not having 
everything in readiness, and in frittering away 
much time in movements and on matters en- 
tirely foreign to the ceremony. The Marshal 
is sent out into the ante-room to see if there 
are any candidates in waiting, and stays per- 
haps ten minutes, holding converse on the 


32 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

state of the weather and prospects of crops in 
general ; then the P. W. C. T. and F. Secre- 
tary consume fifteen minutes frequently in the 
discharge of their duties ; and thus the busi- 
ness drags along, the W. C. T. probably giving 
the finishis g touch to this prodigality, in occu- 
pying the length of time required for the entire 
ceremony in explaining the unwritten work. 

All these wastes must be avoided : and we 
will only render our ceremonies impressive 
and our entire Lodge sessions truly interesting 
when we have learned punctuality, prompt- 
ness and despatch in the workings of our 
organization. 






CHAPTER VI. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. READINESS TO DISCHARGE DUTY.— 

EXERCISES UNDER THE HEAD OF “ GOOD 
OF THE ORDER.” PERSONAL DUTY. 

G OOD TEMPLARS are generally ready 
to engage in our work in any capacity 
they may be placed. Our most active, long- 
tried and honored members are frequently 
selected for Outside Guard, and enter upon 
the discharge of its duties with cheerfulness 
and earnestness. Those who have the love 
of the cause at heart are ready and anxious to 
labor in any sphere of action where they can 
be promotive of good. 

Sometimes, however, we have been in 
Lodges where there was a great mania for 
asking to be excused , and frequently the W. 
C. T. found it difficult to fill his committees 
and appointed offices. Now, if there is any- 
thing in the world that falls like an iceberg on 

33 


34 THE good of the order . 

the interest of a Lodge meeting it is this habit 
of asking to be excused. We are aware many 
members make excuses because they really feel 
incompetent to fill the position assigned them, 
but more do it from a disinclination to be 
troubled or an unwillingness to make sacrifices 
for the cause, and in either case the example 
is detrimental to the interest of the Lodge, and 
often proves positively disastrous. 

Though we much dislike to see members 
striving for the offices in the Lodge, we confess 
to having much more hope for such a Lodge 
than where the offices have to go begging for 
incumbents. Let us take hold of any duty as- 
signed to us as though we loved the work and 
as if we felt proud to be thus engaged and 
honored by the appointment; then others will 
begin to feel interested, and our glorious enter- 
prise will be pushed on to certain success and 
the enemy against which we are warring be 
driven to destruction. 

Under the head of “ Good of the Order” it 
becomes the special duty of each member to 
do something to make the meetings interest- 
ing. We have attended meetings where the 
regular routine of business was gone tt rough 
with hurriedly, and when the order, “ Has 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 35 


anv one anything to offer for the good of the 
Order?” was reached, some one moved to ad- 
journ, which motion was carried, and the 
Lodge adjourned and the members separated. 
Now, how much better or more interested is a 
member for having attended such a meeting? 
How much stronger to go forth into the world 
and battle against intemperance? 

Our meetings are intended as preparatory 
schools to get our members interested in our 
work and the cause, and to arm theyn with the 
arrows of truth, which they can draw upon 
the enemy as they mingle in the business and 
social circles of life. 

Lodges should have a regular programme 
of exercises for each evening under this head. 
This may consist of a manuscript paper, edited 
by some competent brother or sister and sup- 
ported by the liberal contributions of the 
membership, select readings, original essays, 
a question-box, discussions of questions re- 
lating to the cause, or miscellaneous or such 
other exercises as the good taste and expe- 
rience of the members may suggest ; but, in 
case these prepared and arranged exercises do 
not occupy the whole time, or none are in 
readiness, then each member should feel as 


36 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


though he or she was responsible for some 
profitable entertainment. 

No one who attends our meetings but can 
say, read, write or sing something of interest 
to others. We are all interested in each other, 
and are profited by each other’s thoughts and 
suggestions. 

When quite young I became connected 
with a Christian church, and was once slightly 
reproved for not attending the prayer-meetings 
more regularly. I had to confess that I was 
not interested and I thought the meetings dull. 
My pastor said the difficulty was with me : if 
I would go to .the meeting prepared to take 
some part which would interest others, I would 
become interested myself and no longer con- 
sider the meeting dull. I readily saw the 
point was well taken. So in our organization, 
if each member would be prepared to offer 
some remarks, read some selection, sing an 
appropriate song — anything to interest — there 
would be no lack of entertainment at our meet- 
ings. So many of our membership go to 
Lodge and sit with hands folded and mouths 
closed through the entire meeting, as if they 
expected to be perpetually fed at the hands of 
Brother A. or Sister B., and seem to think it 


Tr.E GOOD OF THE ORDER . 37 


is the especial duty of certain members to as- 
sume all the responsibility, do all the work 
and afford all the entertainment, and then, if 
perchance they have not been as much in- 
terested as they desired, go away remarking 
how dull the Lodge meetings are becoming, 
and they don’t think it u pays” to go. 

Members of this class frequently thus sit 
during the meeting while important business 
is transacted, not offering a suggestion or op- 
posing action in any form, and yet the next 
day stoutly condemn the passage of some resolu- 
tion, and affirm that such unwise action must 
sooner or later tear the Lodge into fragments. 
Now, this action may not have been wise, and 
may prove very detrimental to the best interests 
of the Lodge and. Order, but no member should 
say aught against it after it has passed, and 
certainly such members as those just referred 
to are the last ones who should condemn it. 

The time to offer an opinion upon any ques- 
tion or to make an opposition against any 
measure is when it is under consideration, and 
then, if one’s views are correct, the majority 
of the Lodge will generally see it and adopt 
them ; but, if it should not so adopt our opinion, 
instead of arraying ourselves in opposition, so 
4 


38 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

much greater is the need of our aiding in the 
execution of the measure. Unwise measures 
endorsed by all, after they have passed, are 
often less disastrous in their consequences than 
wise ones with a portion of the membership 
arrayed against their enforcement. 

But I have inadvertently digressed. The 
point especially designed to enforce is that 
each member should feel and act as though 
the interest and efficiency of the Lodge meet- 
ings were dependent upon him, and if there 
is any want of interest or decrease of efficiency, 
look to himself as the cause and seek the 
remedy there. 

The following extract from the Boston Good 
Templar is so exactly apropos that I take the 
liberty of copying : 

44 We know of no word that is oftener used 
in a manner to excite the contempt of the faith- 
ful than the little pronoun they . Take our 
own loved Order for instance. How often is 
an expression like this made when speaking 
of the Lodge and its meetings : 4 Well, I rather 
think they are going down hill ;* and, being 
questioned why he does not attend more punc- 
tually, the answer is, 4 Why, they don’t ap- 
pear to have interest enough. If they would 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 39 


Only make the meetings more interesting I 
should like to be there.* That is the cry : if 
they — they — they would only make the meet- 
ings more interesting. 

“Now, let each brother put to himself this 
question (and sister too) : ‘ If I wait till they 
create an interest in my Lodge, how long be- 
fore I shall attend its meetings?* When you 
feel like solving this question, you will un- 
doubtedly find yourself unconsciously inter- 
ested. But if you really want to see the meet- 
ings interesting — if you want to find a pleasure 
in participating in that interest — just go to 
your Lodge and make an interest. Never 
say, ‘ They;' always use the word, ‘/:* ‘ If / 
can’t feel an interest in the Lodge,* not ‘ They 
don’t make an interest.* 

“ Dear brother or sister, if you will only set 
yourself to work to make the meetings of your 
Lodge interesting, that very work on your part 
will create an excitement in your bosom that 
will give you an interest in spite of yourself. 
Go to your Lodge meetings determined to feel 
an interest in the proceedings, get up at the 
proper time and introduce some subject of in- 
terest to the members, and push it ahead till 
others are moved, and then remember that 


40 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


did it, and that 4 /’ can do it again if 
need be. 

“Above all, never let the individual 4 P be 
swallowed up by ‘ they.' Remember that 
your Lodge is composed of individuals, and 
that each one has an equal share of its bur- 
dens. If interest is wanting, remember that 
it is 4 1 ' who must create it. If I lay back and 
look for the interest that they must create, 
then an eternity might roll away without it. 
Lodges would crumble, and Good Templarism, 
with all its high and noble aspirations, become 
lost to the world, under the influence of such 
a principle. When the individual becomes 
merged in the mass, losing all personal iden- 
tity, society is at once placed on the retro- 
grade ; and, in an institution like ours, the 
principle is death. 

“ Brothers and sisters, when you refer to 
the affairs of your Lodge, do not forget that 
you are part of it. If any one does wrong, 
point out the delinquent. But when you feel 
a lack of interest, look to your own exertions : 
never wait for a reform longer than you are 
putting your shoulder to the wheel. Never 
let the individual 4 I ' be sunk beneath the in- 
discriminate 4 they.’ " 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. — NEWSPAPERS, MUSIC, ETC. 

I N our last chapter we endeavored to en- 
force upon our membership the personal 
duty of each to do something to render the 
Lodge meetings interesting. 

Willing and anxious as we may be to per- 
form our part toward accomplishing this end, 
we are wholly unfitted to contribute even our 
mite unless we seek to inform ourselves in 
reference to the great questions connected with 
this reform. 

No one can hope to be thus informed with- 
out giving a liberal patronage to the temper- 
ance press and studying the works that dis- 
cuss these questions in all their various aspects. 
We are interested ourselves, and our hearts 
are enlisted in any theme just in proportion 
as we read upon and give thorough investiga- 
tion to it ; and we must become intelligent 
4 » 41 


42 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

workers in the great temperance reform if we 
would hope to be efficient. 

In my own brief professional experience I 
have found that I became intensely interested 
in some suit at law, in which I have studied 
well the adjudicated cases bearing upon it, not 
merely because there is a certain amount of 
money at stake or the title to some homestead 
dependent upon the issue, but because the 
-principles involved in the case have been so 
thoroughly scanned and analyzed. 

The agriculturist reads the periodicals espe- 
cially devoted to his pursuit, until his vocation, 
in his estimation, is lifted from the mere me- 
chanical plodding after the plough and har- 
row, and elevated to a high profession, calling 
to its aid all the natural sciences. He has 
made farming in all its branches his study 
until he has become an enthusiast upon all 
subjects connected with the soil, and all his 
tasks and aspirations have become ennobled 
thereby. He is now fitted to interest others in 
his calling, and can consistently become a 
teacher in these questions which have so long 
occupied his earnest attention and reflection. 

Not long since, at a District Convention, a 
brodicr asked me, as is usual, how the cause 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 43 


progressed in the State. I replied that never, 
in my recollection, was there so much perma- 
nent interest in the cause, and never was our 
organization so prosperous as now. “ Ah, 
indeed,” he replied ; “ why, our Lodge has 
been going down this winter, and I supposed 
the interest in the cause was declining.” 

During the reports from Lodges, I requested 
a statement of the number of temperance 
papers taken by the members of each Lodge, 
and this brother’s report disclosed the too 
common fact that his Lodge took only one 
copy, and a little cross-examination brought 
out the further fact that this copy was sent by 
the Grand Lodge gratuitously , and even this 
copy was never read or seen by the member- 
ship. Why should not this brother have sup- 
posed the cause on' the decline? He judged 
its status elsewhere by his own place ; and 
how else could he judge it? Wholly ignorant 
of the unusual activity of our temperance 
workers in other places, what wonder is it 
that the members in that place became luke- 
warm and disheartened? 

If the members of this Lodge had been 
readers of our official organ, how would their 
hearts have been encouraged by the thrilling 


44 THE good of the order . 


accounts of the progress of our work in dif- 
ferent localities, the stirring resolutions of Dis- 
trict Conventions, and earnest appeals from 
our lecturers and officers! and how would 
their - minds have been stored with valuable 
truths, as the various questions connected with 
our grand enterprise are fully and elaborately 
discussed in its columns by the first pens of 
the age ! 

Good Templars should patronize tUe tem- 
perance press, because it is the prolinc source 
of information to all engaged in our glorious 
reform which is to give them wisdom to de- 
vise and plan for judicious action, and earnest- 
ness and zeal to work heartily and effectively. 

In my experience as an administrative officer 
of our organization, our best Lodges are those 
where the most temperance papers are taken 
and the most comprehensive libraries are sus- 
tained, and vice versd. 

The remarks of the Keystone Good Te7n~ 
plar, our own official organ, are sound and in 
point, and my own observation confirms the 
statement in every particular : 

“ We would earnestly invite your immediate 
attention to the great importance of extensively 
circulating The Templar among the members 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 45 


of every Lodge throughout the State, firmly 
believing that no single agency can possibly 
be employed that will so effectually revive and 
vitalize the Older generally as a cheap, popu- 
lar, sound and reliable weekly paper. 

“A number of Lodges have already sub- 
scribed, in clubs numbering from five to sixty 
each, and as far as we have been able to as- 
certain all these are prospering. Lancaster 
Lodge, for instance, three months ago, enjoyed 
but little more than a mere existence. After 
several unsuccessful efforts had been made to 
revive it, a proposition was made to use a por- 
tion of the funds remaining in the treasury to 
subscribe for The Templar — one copy to 
each member for one year — which was unani- 
mously agreed to, and the paper has been for- 
warded accordingly. The result is most grati- 
fying. Members who had been almost for- 
gotten now attend the Lodge regularly ; the 
meetings are large and interesting; new mem- 
bers have been added ; old ones are squaring 
their accounts on the books ; money is again 
flowing into the treasury, very soon to replace 
the comparatively small sum paid for the sixty 
papers subscribed for; and the Lodge is in a 
truly prosperous condition. That this is the 


46 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


natural result of making each a reading 
member of I be Lodge seems clear and un- 
questionable. With such res» . f s before us, 
argument as to the importance and value of 
such a paper is deemed unnecessary." 

Again, vve must add the charms of music 
if we would have our Lodge meetings really 
interesting. Let Lodge choirs be formed and 
sustained, so that not only our excellent odes 
may be sung with spirit and effect, but that we 
may also have provided other fresh and stir- 
ring temperance music which shall thrill the 
hearts of the membership. Our Good Temp- 
lars complain that it is difficult to obtain good 
temperance music — that what we have is of a 
juvenile character. We admit this, and add 
that it will never be furnished us until we pay 
more attention to this department of our ex- 
ercises, so as to create a demand for temper- 
ance music. Publishers of music are business 
men, and will only publish what will sell, and 
we have ourselves to blame for not having the 
shelves of our music stores teeming with 
choice sheets of temperance songs, and music 
fresh from the press. Lodges should alvvavs 
have an instrument, when any reasonable sac- 
rifice will result in securing one. It is a sine 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 47 


qua non , and no Lodge is so poor but that one 
can be obtained if each member goes to work 
with that end in view. 

Without good music our meetings will seem 
dull, even when we have a fair programme of 
interesting exercises. With it, a meeting 
otherwise dull will be lively and entertaining. 





CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. — REGULAR AI IENDANCE OF THE MEM- 
BERS NECESSA**'/. 

N O Lodge meeting can be interesting if 
but slirmy attended. An audience is as 
essential to an interesting meeting as a lively, 
entertaining programme of exercises; and a 
speaker of John B. Gough celebrity cannot 
make a meeting successful without the sympa- 
thetic, mesmeric influence of good listeners. 
Our Grand Lodge lecturers have often left the 
reputation behind them of tcune and dry speak- 
ers, when the fault was in the audience, or in 
the people in not securing an audience. 

Nine-tenths of the benefit of a good point is 
lost when alone I hear it, while there are nine 
others that should be present to hear the same. 
It is poor encouragement for an active member 
of a Lodge to spend time in the preparation of 
entertainment when only a small proportion of 
48 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 49 


the membership manifest sufficient apprecia- 
tion to attend the. meeting and hear it. 

The closing charge of the W. C. T. to the 
initiate, “ that it is expected you will be present 
at all our meetings,” is placed last because 
believed to be one of the most important 
duties of the members, and yet many of our 
ablest an 1 most influential members act as 
though attendance upon the Lodge meetings 
was a matter of mere convenience. 

We believe it a violation of our obligation 
to voluntarily, without reasonable excuse, ab- 
sent ourselves from the Lodge meetings ; and 
when our membership shall have become edu- 
cated up to this standard of action we shall 
have fewer complaints of dull meetings and 
declining interest, and, as a logical sequence, 
less suspensions of«Lodges. 

The following original speech, which we 
publish by permission, is in point: 

44 One of our eighteen-year-old Templars 
made the following private speech recently, 
out in the ante-room, immediately after closing 
a Lodge meeting, which had been attended by 
about fifteen faithful ones out of one hundred 
men bers in good standing : 

“ 4 1 used to think that Brother J and 


50 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


Brother N were the head men of the 

Lodge, for I often see their names in the papers 
when State meetings and conventions are held, 
and in the proceedings of national Lodges and 
similar organizations ; but right here, at home, 
they are never on hand when anything is to be 
done to help the subordinate Lodge or to carry 
on our meetings. I wonder how they ever 
came to figure so very prominently abroad, 
whilst at home they are never thought of as 

active temperance men ? There’s Brother J 

who thinks nothing of traveling from three 
hundred to five hundred miles to attend a Na 
tional convention, or a National Lodge or 
society, where he and the other leading men 
cut out the work for us to do, but he never 
shows his face here. I suppose he’s got to be 
above us rank and file. But^ then, it seems to 
me, he ought not to palm himself oft' as our 
representative when among his kind of tem- 
perance leaders abroad , for the truth is, he’s 
no representative at all, but only for himself. 
I wonder whether the members of the Right 
Worthy Grand Lodge, of the Grand National 
Division and of the national temperance socie- 
ties are all like him — a Good Templar, without 
caring more for a subordinate Lodge than a. 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 5 1 

cow does about preaching? And then there’s 

Brother D ; he isn’t a bit better. Since 

last August I have attended every meeting of 
the Lodge except two, and, you may b’lieve me 
or not, I didn’t see him in the Lodge once 
during all this time, and yet the temperance 
men abroad, I know, look upon him as one of 
the most powerful and influential champions 
of the cause! Where’s the Financial Secre- 
tary? I would like to know whether he isn’t 
enough in arrears to enable us to suspend or 
expel him for non-payment of dues? If he is, 
we ought to hoist him out at the very next 
* meeting. He can make a good speech, as we 
all know, and likes to do it — in State conven- 
tions, Grand Lodges and National conven- 
tions — but he’s entirely above us and never 
comes near our meetings. We’d better be 
without such members, for then they wouldn’t 
keep others away, as they now do, bv popular- 
izing the impression that it isn’t at all dignified, 
fashionable or necessary to attend meetings 
and come down to our level. But just let 
some leading functionary come along from 
abroad — one who’s at the head of the heap — 
and I’ll warrant you he’ll be on hand, too, and 
cut the biggest kind of a swell.. Now, I honor 


52 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

and respect leaders of brain, character and 
reputation, but, somehow, I do think they might 
call in at Lodge meetings occasionally — once 
in a while — without seriously lowering their 
dignity. Let’s turn down the gas and go 
home 1” 


CHAPTER IX. 






IIOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. OUTSIDE WORK. — PUBLIC MEETINGS. 

I T is frequently charged against us that we 
are an exclusive organization, confining 
our beneficial operations to our own member- 
ship. With some Lodges the charge is well 
founded. Selfishness, brothers and sisters, 
should not actuate the Good Templar in this 
great Temperance reform. Let us recollect 
that we are not to work merely to save our- 
selves and families; but when these interests 
are securely guarded by the benign influence 
of our organization, our neighbor and his 
family are in danger, and humanity demands 
all our energies in reaching out to save them. 

I am frequently invited to visit Lodges which 
seem to be on the wane, and invariably I find 
such to be lukewarm and stupid as neglect 
entirely to hold stated public meetings in 
5 * 53 


54 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


which all who love the cause and sympathize 
with Temperance work may participate. 

We are so constituted that we only really 
appreciate our blessings and privileges when 
we share those gifts with others, and we best 
enioy the blessings of total abstinence when 
most ardently laboring to extend those bless- 
ings to others. 

o 

Our organization is not close enough to live 
and grow when our membership are shut up 
in our Lodge rooms, and not striving to scatter 
the golden beams of Truth and Temperance in 
the by-ways where so many are being led as- 
tray and made victims of the flowing bowl. 

Our reform cannot advance without agita- 
tion and peisi&tent discussion; and no better 
means can be devised to keep the public atten- 
tion constantly alive to the interests involved 
in this great enterprise of humanity than fre- 
quent and periodical open Temperance meet- 
ings. 

Each Lodge has the ability to initiate this 
movement and creditably sustain such meet- 
ings. Do not wait for the Grand Lodge to 
send vou a lecturer, or even until >ome emi- 
nent speaker from abroad can be secured, but 
learn self-reliance, and go to work end develop 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 55 


the resources within yourselves. Draw upon 
your own membership for addresses, recita- 
tions and music to make public meetings in- 
teresting, and invite your ministers, physi 
cians and lawyers who are not Good Temp- 
Jars to give you addresses or sermons from 
time to time. 

Not many months since a member of a 
Lodge in one of the border counties of the 
State wrote me a most desponding letter in 
reference to his Lodge — that it had suspended 
meetings, and must go down, &c. ; and also 
remarked that u they had been waiting all 
winter for the Grand Lodge to send them a 
lecturer !” Poor, feeble souls ! that have lost 
their vitality while waiting for the nourishment 
to be sent them which was all the time in their 
own possession. 

I hope our Lodges will divest themselves of 
this feeling of entire dependence either upon 
the Grand Lodge or any particular member 
of the Subordinate Lodge. 

If deprived of assistance from the Grand 
Lodge, or providentially of the services of a 
valuable member, the loss may be made 
marked gain if thereby the Lodge is stimu- 
lated to greater exertion and develops the 


56 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


hidden resources that are certainly within 
it. 

The effect of any public Temperance meet- 
ing is to induce earnest discussion of the ques- 
tions connected with this reform. After a lec- 
ture, on the street corners, in the stores and 
shops, and especially the liquor shops, may 
always be seen small debating clubs improvised 
for a discussion of its merits, and it matters not 
whether the verdict of such circles is favorable 
or unfavorable ; so far as the meeting has re- 
sulted in awakening the public attention to the 
evils of intemperance, and the importance of 
effort to arrest its spread, great good has been 
done. 

If the interests of the Christian religion 
were not oftener brought before the public 
than the temperance cause, what a terrible 
spiritual dearth would we see around us ! The 
zeal of the most pious would wax cold, and 
wickedness would stalk abroad at noonday 
with entire impunity. 

With several churches in each little place, 
each supporting stated preaching on the Sab- 
bath, and week-day prayer-meetings and lec- 
tures, and this having been continued for 
nearly nineteen centuries, Christianity is yet 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 57 


far from having gained the victory over the 
great enemy of human souls. 

Then with only occasionally a Temperance 
organization, and holding open Temperance 
meetings once or twice a year, the subject dis* 
cussed only by a select few whose hearts are 
interested in the work, what wonder is it that 
we see so much lukewarmness? Let us wake 
up, brethren, and bring this subject to the at- 
tention of our friends and neighbors and force 
them to think upon it. It is not material 
under whose auspices a public Temperance 
meeting is held, nor whether the lecturer or 
hearers in the meeting are good Templars or 
not, our membership should aid them all in 
their power. 

It is of course natural and commendable 
that we should seek to advance our own or- 
ganization, but the result of any. Temperance 
meeting, or of any orthodox Temperance lec- 
ture, is to build up and strengthen our organi- 
zation, if it has existence in such place. 

When you have induced thinking on the 
part of the public, some are at once led to the 
conclusion that it is dutv to act, and when at 
this point the next question is, How and where 
shall we act? The only answer that can be 


58 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


given is: “In some working temperance or- 
ganization,” which we claim to be, and popu- 
lar opinion generally concedes that merit, at 
least, to us. 

The modus operandi of a public meeting, 
that it may be attractive as well as instructive, 
will suggest itself to the good judgment and 
taste of all our membership. 

Such meetings must always vary with dif- 
ferent localities and tastes. In this article I 
merely wish to impress upon all the import- 
ance of holding them. 



CHAPTER X. 


DIFFICULTIES IN LODGES. — WHAT CAUSES 
THEM AND THE RESULTS. — WHY LODGES 
FAIL. 


OOD TEMPLARS might hope for rapid 



V_JT strides in the great Temperance reform 
working through our organization could we 
always count on the permanent existence of 
our Lodges. If the machinery of a Good 
Templar Lodge, w'hen once put in running 
order and set in motion, would continue its 
revolutions without friction, by the ordinary 
application of motive power, we would have 
the happv influence of thousands more of 
Lodges than exist to-day. 

Unfortunately, our Lodges fail ; some sli ght 
disturbing element creeps in and grows until 
it breaks the Lodge into fragments. In my 
experience. Lodges do not go down from op- 
position from the outside enemy ; do not fail 
because our principles are too stringent, or 
from differences created from construing our 


59 


60 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


obligation or platform of principles, or any of 
the great issues that underlie our organization, 
but are destroyed by internal dissensions that 
aie generally traceable to some member who 
is determined to have his own way. Indeed, 
the bane of our organization is that we have 
so many brothers who think they are the be 
all and end all of parliamentary law and the 
laws, rules and usages of our Order, and who 
are determined continually to raise small points 
during a session, and to have their own way in 
the settlement of these questions. 

My observation and experience are that our 
appeals do not generally arise from the more 
important and general questions, such as pro- 
hibition, total abstinence even from sweet wine 
and cider, liquor as a medicine, etc., but from 
some of the minor and insignificant points, such 
as : Should the concluding motion of a session 
be to “adjourn,” or “close?” Is a motion 
made by a member without regalia legal? In 
voting foi officers, must the full name be on 
the ballot? etc. Upon the settlement of these 
and kindred, questions, long and earnest dis- 
cussions arise, and appeals arc taken and car- 
ried to our highest judicatories, while issues 
arising from the other class very seldom engen- 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 6 1 


der sufficient feeling to carry them beyond the 
subordinate Lodge. 

To all, I would say, avoid raising trifling 
points of laWy usage and order , because, 

First. It gives rise to long and exhausting 
discussions, and time is too valuable to be con- 
sumed in this way. The various important 
questions connected with the Temperance re- 
form are prolific sources of interest, and time 
can be profitably employed in their considera- 
tion ; and if we ever hope to awaken public 
attention to the importance of these subjects, 
we shall have to give our time and thoughts to 
them, both in the Lodge-room and elsewhere. 

Second. Discussions upon technical points 
are not interesting even to our own member- 
ship. We should not forget that our member- 
ship is made up of the whole family, and 
though some of our men may become intensely 
interested in some of these discussions upon 
trivial questions, our sons, daughters and wives 
may not take one particle of interest. We 
should aim to shape our discussions and all 
exercises so as to afford entertainment as far as 
possible to our united membership. 

Third. It leads to disastrous results. From 
such discussions arise party feeling and bitter- 


62 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


ness, which, sooner or later, end in the disso- 
lution of the Lodge. Great and sad endings 
come from small beginnings. Hundreds of 
our best Lodges, illuminating the entire com- 
munity with their radiance, have gone out in 
the darkness of dissensions and distracted 
counsels. In such Lodges our best and wisest 
men have found themselves powerless to avert 
impending ruin. In conducting Lodges, we 
need to be as “ wise as serpents and harmless 
as doves.” 

The bickerings and strifes in some of our 
Lodges remind us of a quarrel between two 
small boys, who were going along a road, 
talking together in a pleasant way, when one 
of them said, 

“ I wish I had all the pasture-land in the 
world.” 

The other said, “And I wish I had all the 
cattle in the world.” 

“What would you do with them?” asked 
his friend. 

“ Why, I would turn them into your pasture- 
land.” 

“ No, you wouldn’t,” was the reply. 

“ Yes, I would.” 

“ But L wouldn’t let you.” 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 63 

“ I wouldn’t ask you.” 

“ You shouldn’t do it.” 

“I should.” 

“You sha’n’t !” 

“I will!” 

And with that they seized and pounded each 
other like two silly, wicked boys, as they were. 

And we have also often been reminded of 
the well-known farce-comedy of “Paul Pry,” 
where everything comes right in the closing 
scene; Colonel Hardy, belonging to the tra- 
ditional testy class, alone appears discontented. 
Somebody says to him, “ You ought to be 
satisfied, for you have had your own way, at 
last;” but the Colonel replies, “Yes, but I 
have not had my own way of having it” 

Hundreds of our best and most efficient 
Good Templars leave us for no other reason 
than that they become disgusted with the per- 
sistence of some brother in raising and discuss- 
ing insignificant points, and in the continual 
agitation of questions of no real importance. 
Our business men have no time to spend in 
listening to such profitless harangues and no 
taste for such egotistical displays. Many strik- 
ing illustrations might be adduced in our own 
State, where Lodges in the zenith of usefulness 


64 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


and prosperity have been rent into fragments 
in three months’ time, from taking advantage 
of technical points and raising insignificant 
questions. I would not censure our brethren 
who so nobly stand upon the constitution and 
defend it from violence. When you feel that 
it is really being violated, raise your point and 
have it decided, but never raise points for the 
sake of showing your own skill as a debater or 
parliamentarian, or merely to trip up your op- 
ponent in a discussion. 

Again, when a question you raise has been 
decided, yield a cheerful compliance, and go 
to work with all the earnestness you can com- 
mand to sustain such decision. If the final de- 
cision is contrary to your convictions and the 
position previously occupied by you, your pres- 
ent compliance with and support of the de- 
cision will make your advocacy all the more 
potent for good. Oh how strong would our 
Lodges become if our membership was only 
united in supporting every measure adopted 
by the majority and sustaining every decision 
made by the constituted authorities ! 

Though the W. C. T. or G. W. C. T. may 
not be any better qualified, or even as well 
qualified, to adjudicate questions of law or 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 65 

usage as yourself, still it is necessary to have 
that power vested somewhere in all human 
organizations, and as it has been given to those 
officers, their decision should receive your 
hearty concurrence. Feasible as may be your 
plan of action, it is not possible for it to be 
always .adopted in any organization. The ob- 
ject of organized effort is that we may have the 
benefit of collected wisdom ; and that an or- 
ganization may work harmoniously upon a 
united plan, you must yield some of your con- 
victions of policy and I must yield some of 
mine. So long as we pull in different direc- 
tions we cannot hope to work effectively. 

At the close of a lecture a few days ago, 
a good brother, very much excited, said, 
“ Brother Chase, will you not do something to 
save our Lodge?” 

Upon inquiring as to the difficulty, “Why,” 
said he, “ they have gone and spent a hundred 
and fifty dollars for those curtains,” pointing to 
the curtains for dramatic entertainments, u and 
the Lodge is ruined !” 

This Lodge had adopted a series of dramatic 
entertainments, and this brother, with many 
others who opposed the measure, had ab- 
sented himself from the Lodge meetings, and 


66 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


openly said he would not attend again so 
long as the dramatic paraphernalia remained. 
Now these brethren committed a great mis- 
take. Admitting that the dramatic policy 
was a bad one, for the sake of argument, they 
took a strange course to correct such policy. 
They should have remained regular attendants 
at the Lodge, and then, in due course of time, 
they might hope to correct the evils, if any, 
which had crept into the Lodge. A few mem- 
bers, who are not in sympathy with some move- 
ment of the Lodge, absenting themselves from 
the Lodge meetings, or withdrawing from the 
Order and circulating the report that the Lodge 
is ruined, make very short work of the Lodge’s 
destruction. 

The inside of an organization, and not the 
outside , is the place to purify and bring it up 
to a more correct standard of action. Many 
influential and good people have told us they 

would join our organization but for A , 

who belongs, whose conduct does not please, 
or for this action by the Lodge, which is dis- 
approved, when such should join and give their 
potent influence and example to correct such 
members and change the Lodge’s action for 
the better. 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 67 

Again, Good Templars should never run 
down or speak disparagingly of the Lodge. 
We frequently have members tell us, on in- 
quiry as to the progress of the Lodge, “ Oh, it 
is going down “ It is no use trying to keep it 
up.” And such remarks, if allowed to start, 
will constantly increase, until you soon have a 
public sentiment created that the Lodge is de- 
clining, and the members begin to neglect the 
meetings and their duties, and, finally, what 
was the expression of some faint-hearted, do- 
nothing member has become a living reality, 
and the Lodge is, in fact, going down rapidly. 

The members control public sentiment in 
reference to the Lodge, and if any one express 
the thought that the Lodge is going down, no 
one on the outside will stand up and arrest the 
spread of such infectious sentiments. 

There is a portion of our members — and all 
organizations have them — who never come in 
until it is manifest it is to be a success or be 
popular , and such are careful to abandon the 
ship the moment she springs a leak, for fear 
they may be caught in her while sinking. 

How then can we expect accessions to our 
membership when so many of our members 
are constantly predicting the downfall of the 


68 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

Lodge? No organization will ever sustain a 
higher reputation than its own friends give it, 
and many a Lodge has died from no other 
cause than its own members giving currency 
to the report that it was dying . 

Truly, selfishness predominates in the human 
heart, and to-day it may be placed at the head 
of those causes which result in the downfall of 
Good Templar Lodges. When will w r e learn 
to forget self in the great warfare for the dearest 
interests of humanity? 




CHAPTER XI. 

DELINQUENT LODGES. — DAMAGING INFLU- 
ENCE OF GETTING IN ARREARS, BOTH 
UPON MEMBERS AND LODGES. 

I N the working of our Lodges we have a 
certain established financial basis for the 
support of the subordinate and Grand Lodge. 
In the Subordinate Lodge, a member delin- 
quent in paying the regular dues is after a 
stated time suspended from all privileges in the 
Order ; and the Grand Lodge virtually sus- 
pends the Subordinate Lodge delinquent in 
the payment of its tax, by withholding the 
current quarterly pass-word until such delin- 
quency is removed. 

Nothing is so essential to vitality and ac- 
tivity in Lodges as promptness on the part of 
the members in discharging all pecuniary obli- 
gations. Good Templars should always recol- 
lect that paying dues and assessments is as 
much a part of our obligation as abstaining 

69 


70 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

from intoxicants, and the vitality of the Lodge 
is dependent upon it. Though the Lodge 
treasury suffers when members allow them- 
selves to get in arrears, still the members them- 
selves are the greatest sufferers. Members 
uhould always pay dues when, under our 
l tiles, they are payable, and there will be a 
satisfaction in so doing which makes them of 
“ good heart,” and thus earnest in their work. 

A member in arrears is without the pass- 
word, and will sometimes make this an excuse 
for not attending a meeting; and if the dues 
are allowed to accrue any length of time, it 
soon becomes inconvenient to pay, and he 
ceases to attend altogether. 

Attendance upon meetings is as essential to 
Good Templar life as is breath to physical, 
and we have reason to tremble for the safety 
of any Good Templar who neglects the tem- 
perance associations afforded by our Lodge 
meetings. We would not have occasion to 
mourn so many declensions from virtue in 
our membership, if the injunction, “you will 
be expected to attend all our meetings,” was 
always respected. 

The payment of a few cents may seem a 
small affair to make the subject of our article, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. *J\ 

but could all our readers see the scores that 
have fallen hack to their cups, whose fall was 
induced primarily by allowing themselves to 
get in arrears, they would cease to wonder 
that we make promptness in the payment of 
dues a sine qua non in the Good Templar’s 
standing. 

But, especially, see the disastrous effects of 
delinquency in Lodges which are in arrears 
to the Grand Lodge. There are Lodges that, 
claiming to have sent the dues in money by 
letter to the Grand Lodge, refused to pay it 
again ; and not receiving the pass- word, 
worked along under the old, term after term, 
until the members finally refused to pay their 
dues to the Lodge, and utter demoralization 
and dissolution ensued. 

We have a Lodge in mind (and it is a rep- 
resentation of many others) that occupied 
some six months in correspondence upon the 
subject of its account with the Grand Lodge, 
claiming to have sent a ten-dollar bill in a 
letter, which was never received, and posi- 
tively refusing to pay it again ; and after drag- 
ging along for another quarter, it died, having 
become completely demoralized. In this case, 
the Lodge Deputy who claimed to have sient 


73 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


the money was a lawyer who knew the rule 
of the Grand Lodge requiring all moneys to 
be sent in drafts, checks or postal orders, 
and who would not have remitted money in 
that manner for a client without making it up 
in case of a loss ; and yet he allows a Lodge to 
go down, and a place to lose the salutary in- 
fluence of its workings, because, forsooth, he 
says it has been sent once, and he will not 
send it again, and insists upon the Grand Lodge 
sending the pass-word, and defiantly takes the 
stand , “ that the Lodge will pay no more dues 
to the Grand Lodge until the pass-word is 
sent.” 

As well might a man order some flannels 
for his family’s winter wardrobe, sending the 
money in a letter to the merchant, and because 
the goods are not sent, the money not having 
been received, declare that he will not fur- 
nish any more money to buy flannels, and the 
tradesman must send those he has once paid 
for if lie has any, and persist in such a course 
until his shivering children freeze from the 
chilling blasts of winter. 

It is useless for the Subordinate Lodge to 
violate the laws of the Grand Lodge in remit- 
ting money, and then ask the Grand Secretary 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 73 


to balance the account, when the Grand Of- 
ficers have no discretion but to execute the 
laws as made by the Grand Lodge. 

Lodges ought to recollect that they are vio- 
lating their own laws ; for the Grand Lodge 
is made up of the Subordinate Lodges, and 
the laws have been made by the represen- 
tatives of the Subordinate Lodges, in Grand 
Lodge assembled, for the preservation of the 
Grand Lodge and its treasury, and each Lodge 
is interested in the preservation of these laws 
intact. 

It is like a man making a contract to pay a 
hundred dollars, and then, upon sending a one- 
hundred-dollar bill by post, insist that the 
contract was performed, and demand the bal- 
ancing of the account. 

Some of our Lodges are slow in paying dues 
to the Grand Lodge because they have not 
had lecturers sent them, and act as though they 
must receive back in 4 lectures all they pay to 
the Grand Lodge. 

It is true, the Grand Lodge lecturers now 
have to visit old Lodges, and three-fourths of 
our entire lecture fund is expended in keeping 
alive old Lodges. This is a great perversion 
of the fund. In my judgment, Lodges ought 
7 


74 the good of the order. 


to pay this fund to a missionary to occupy new 
ground ; and in the language of Mrs. Dr. 
French, of Philadelphia, at Grand Lodge, 
whose words should be made historic among 
Good Templars, “When a Lodge is put in 
working order it ought to be able to keep itself 
in activity, and contribute something toward 
extending our Older.” Our lecture fund ought 
not to be spent in old Lodges. There is not a 
Lodge in the State but has the elements of 
activity and success, if it would develop these 
elements ; which it will not do as long as it 
cherishes this feeling of dependence upon the 
lecture fund to keep it in breathing condition. 

Recollect, Lodges, that if you are not re- 
ceiving the benefit of the money you pay, some 
one is, and go on paying it cheerfully and lib- 
erally, never doubting the words, “ Cast thy 
bread upon the waters, and it shall be returned 
to thee after many days.” 

Some Lodges labor under the impression 
that if dues are paid to the Lodge Deputy, 
such payment releases the Lodge. This is an 
error. Under our system, each Lodge is per- 
mitted to recommend a member for this posi- 
tion, and the G. W. C. T. commissions the 
member so recommended. Thus, it is ex- 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 75 


pected the Lodge will make a selection of this 
officer, with direct reference to the fact that he 
is to act as the agent of the Lodge in the trans- 
mission of money due the Grand Lodge, and 
exercise such care and caution as generally 
characterize individuals in the appointment 
of agents for the discharge of important trusts. 
In so far as the Lodge Deputy has a general 
oversight of the workings of the Lodge, it is 
a very important position ; and as the efficiency 
of the Lodge depends so much upon its finan- 
cial credit, and the Lodge Deputy is generally 
responsible for all delinquencies in this par- 
ticular, no office in the gift of the Order ex- 
ceeds it in importance. 





OUR UNWRITTEN WORK. — ITS IMPORTANCE, 
USE, DISUSE AND ABUSE. 

HIS subject is not taken up thus late in 



JL our series of articles upon the “ Good of 
the Order” because deemed of less importance 
than others; though, judging from the indiffer- 
ence which many of our members manifest in 
reference to it, we would suppose the unwritten 
work was appended to our organization as lace 
to a lady’s collar — merely as an ornament, to be 
worn or not, as may suit the caprice or con- 
venience of the member. 

Now it is believed that our signs, pass-words 
and grips would impart a real vitality to our 
Order if they were correctly and forcibly used. 
The most perfect system of operations becoir.es 
weak and inefficient when not well adminis- 
tered. The manner in which our signals, signs, 
etc., are given in some Lodges creates the im- 
pression that it is a matter of indifference how 
they are given, if given at all. What we un- 


76 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 77 


derstand by giving our signs forcibly is to give 
them as though our heart was in them — as 
though we felt them just as important as any 
part of our Vtark. Some of our members act 
as though they were ashamed to give our 
signs, and many, alas ! act as though they were 
ashamed of being Good Templars, and on 
being asked whether they belong to the Order, 
on some occasions hesitate, and reply stammer- 
ingly, “ Well — yes — I did “ Well, I joined it 
once , I believe ; I don’t know much about them 
though or, u Well, I suppose I do belong,” — 
all in a low, hesitating, suppressed tone. As 
such are a detriment to our cause, so this faint- 
hearted, tip-of-the-finger style of going through 
with our unwritten work is surely disastrous. 
As in the working of machinery, if a single 
piece, however insignificant, be imperfect, the 
whole motion is marred, so in our organiza- 
tion, a failure to use or the incorrect use of any 
part of our work detracts from the beauty and 
efficiency of the whole. Take our signs of 
recognition, for instance, which are designed 
as tests to ascertain beyond a doubt whether a 
person claiming to be a Good Templar is really 
such or not ; of course, under ordinary circum- 
stances, persous who are not dumb can ascer- 
7 * 


78 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


tain this without the aid of signs, but circum- 
stances will arise when it becomes desirable 
and quite necessary to apply the tests common 
to our Older, and our signs cease to be any 
test when incorrectly given, for any impostor 
could pick up enough of our work to go through 
with them as creditably as two-thirds of our 
membership. 

The grip, or Good Templar’s shake of the 
hand, is seldom employed, though if deemed 
of sufficient importance to be made a part of 
our work, it certainly ought to be observed. 
There is no part of our unwritten work that is 
more significant and which may be rendered 
more prolific of real vitality to our Order. If 
when we take by the hand a young lad who 
belongs with us we give him the grip, we signify 
by the act that we fellowship with him in his 
determination to grow' up a total abstainer, arid 
that our prayers are for him that he may ever 
have strength to resist the temptations to which 
youth are ever exposed. We cannot estimate 
the potent influence of one such act, by those 
matured in life, upon the young. It may be a 
tower of strength. To him wdio has formerly 
been addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks, 
we extend our hand in fraternal greeting, and, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 79 


as we gently and heartily give him the grip, we 
manifest our sympathy with him in his terrible 
struggle to overcome the power of his appetite, 
and show him that he has the prayers of the 
good and the true that he may successfully 
fight this hand-to-hand contest with the fell 
destroyer, Rum. 

It may be he has not for years, if ever be- 
fore, felt the gentle pressure of a female hand, 
or heard her soft, persuasive, sympathetic 
voice ; and as some kind sister greets him with 
the Good Templar’s shake of the hand he feels 
stronger for the battle that is before him. 

A W. C. T. whom I installed in one of our 
Lodges, in a brief speech upon assuming the 
duties of the position, after relating that the 
Good Templars had, two years before, picked 
him up from the very cess-pool of vice and 
iniquity and restored him to his family, friends 
and society, said that he felt that under God 
he owed all that he was to the act of a sister 
of that Lodge the morning after his initiation. 

He said, early the next morning, after be- 
coming a member of the Order, as he was 
going to a shop on an errand, and passing by 
the dram-shop where he had been accustomed 
to go for his morning dram, the inclination to 


So THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


enter was so strong that he forgot all the scenes 
of the night previous, when he promised to ab- 
stain from all that intoxicates for life, and was 
on the point of entering when a sister of the 
Lodge came along from an opposite direction, 
and instead of passing by, as most would have 
done under like circumstances, she recognized 
him, and approaching, took his hand and said, 
“ I am so glad, brother (calling him by name), 
that you joined our Lodge last night, and I 
pray God that you may have strength to keep 
your obligation;” and she gave him the Good 
Templar’s grip so earnestly that, novice as he 
was in our organization, he recognized it, and 
from that time he had no further desire to 
enter that haunt of vice, and he passed on, 
strengthened by the prayer and sympathy of 
that noble sister, and from that time he had 
kept his pledge with all due fidelity. 

We hope none of our members will forget 
that the grip may be made an efficient means 
of strengthening the young in the formation of 
total abstinence principles as well as of rescuing 
the inebriate from the grasp of the fell de- 
stroyer. Let us ever use it, and try to raise the 
standard of administering the unwritten work 
in all our Lodges 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE GOOD TEMPLARS’ OBLIGATION. WHAT 

IT MEANS. — GOOD TEMPLARS SHOULD NOT 
FREQUENT DRAM-SHOPS. 

W HEN a person assumes the Good Tem- 
plars’ obligation he has taken upon 
himself weighty responsibilities. Not only must 
he practice personal abstinence, but the safety 
of others and the reputation and vitality of the 
Lodge which he joins are committed to his 
care. Few Good Templars fall but some one 
has neglected duty, and no Lodge ceases to 
exist — and many of our Lodges seem to die 
very easily — but some of the members have 
been neglectful of trusts resting upon them. 
That part of our obligation requiring us to do 
all in our power to advance the cause of Tem- 
perance is just as binding as that requiring 
personal abstinence from intoxicants. In sup- 
porting this clause of our obligation the ex- 
ample of our members becomes potent. 

81 


82 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


A want of appreciation of the Good Tem- 
plars’ obligation seems to be very general. 
Many of our good brothers frequent the bar- 
room and saloon, enjoying the social influence 
and participating in the jokes and witticisms 
of the place, unwittingly and inadvertently 
bringing disrepute upon our organization and 
the cause. 

Such need not be surprised if it be reported 
of them that they have been violating their 
obligation. If I frequent places where intoxi- 
cating drinks are sold, in my own place of 
residence, I must expect such unfavorable 
rumors will be current ; for no Good Templar 
has a right voluntarily to be in such places, 
participating in the contaminating influences 
incident tc the dram-shop. Hotels and saloons 
are not licensed or kept lor the accommodation 
of their own citizens. Home is the place for 
all of us, and no necessity can arise to justify 
us in lounging about these haunts of vice and 
dissipation. When traveling we are justified 
in stopping at public-houses, even though in- 
toxicating drinks maybe sold, because it is ex- 
pected that we will, and known that we must, 
stop at some house of entertainment; and in 
most localities all public-houses sell liquors. 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 83 

We teach more by example than theory. “If 
a man is known by the company he keeps,” 
then surely some of our Good Templars can- 
not expect to enjoy a very high reputation for 
consistent temperance principles. 

In a certain place I heard it currently re- 
ported that some of the Good Templar young 
men were in the habit of calling at the hotel- 
bar and taking a drink, and then proceeding 
to the Lodge meeting. Now, how much truth 
there may have been in this statement of 
Madam Rumor I cannot say, but I did learn 
that our brothers in that Lodge were in the 
habit of calling at that bar-room and sitting, 
enjoying a social chat and possibly a cigar, 
and then proceeding to the Lodge meeting. 
Now I was not surprised at the currency of 
this report, and I would affectionately urge 
upon all brothers who read this article to shun 
the associations of the bar and club- room, and 
any place which is contaminated by the cor- 
rupting influences of strong drink. If busi- 
ness unavoidably calls you to such places, go 
and transact it, and then leave as you would 
flee from a den of asps, or the poisoned 
miasma of some loathsome disease. Leave as 
you would escape from the snare of the great 


84 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


evil spirit who is personified in alcoholic 
liquors, and whose grand mission-ground is 
the dram-shop. Flee, O ye young men, for 
vour moral lives, which are in imminent peril 
from the time you first begin to breathe the 
impurities that always surround intoxicating 
beverages. Enter not voluntarily into such 
places, for your own safety and on account of 
your example to others. The proper construc- 
tion of our obligation forbids it ; and the wel- 
fare of our brothers who are struggling to gain 
the mastery over appetite, who cannot with 
any safety be found in such places, demands 
that all of us should scrupulously avoid them. 
If we throw around our weak brothers in- 
fluences that will make them strong and vig- 
orous in their warfare with the tyrant appetite, 
then we must not ourselves be found in any 
place, nor with any associations, where the 
weakest cannot safely enter. If we would 
hope to make the drinking usages of society 
unpopular and disreputable, then we must 
show in our example that we despise all places 
where intoxicating drinks are sold or drunk as 
a beverage. 



CHAPTER XIV. 


THE RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES OP 


DEPUTIES. 


O officers seem to have so much difficulty 



i. \l in discharging their duties without fric- 
tion in the Lodge as our Lodge Deputies. 
This is not surprising, in view of the imperfect 
understanding of the rights, privileges and du- 
ties of Deputies. 

The following is a letter written in answer 
to certain inquiries, and is published here as 
covering points of interest and importance to 
all Good Templars: 

Your first inquiry is this : “In time of dis- 
order or unconstitutional proceedings, has the 
Lodge Deputy the right, without appeal, to 
demand the chair or adjourn the meeting?” 
1 answer, only in cases of unconstitutional 
proceedings, not merely disorderly . 

In our Order the W. C. T. is the presiding 


8 


85 


86 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


officer, and entitled to occupy the chair; and 
neither the G. YV. C. T. nor any Deputy has 
any right to take the chair unceremoniously , 
without being invited , or to demand the chair 
of the YV. C. T. merely because such G. W. 
C. T. or Deputy may think the Lodge is 
working “ disorderly” 

The decision giving this right to a Deputy 
is intended to cover cases of clear violatiozz of 
the Constitution , and extreme cases only ; such 
as this, for instance : Suppose A has been bal- 
loted for by a Lodge, and five members, deem- 
ing such applicant unworthy of membership 
and knowing that the admission of such person 
will result in great injury, if not disaster, to the 
Lodge, vote against such applicant. The W. 
C. T., however, notwithstanding such rejec- 
tion, orders the Lodge to proceed to the initia- 
tion of A, and directs the proper officers to go 
to the ante-room and discharge their duties. 

Here is a case of such plain infraction of 
the Constitution as to admit of no doubt or 
dispute, and such an extreme case as requires 
the immediate and absolute interference of the 
Deputy to arrest all further proceedings, which 
he may do by demanding the Chair peremptor- 
ily ; or, if that is refused him, by declaring the 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 87 

Lodge adjourned. In this case it would not 
do to wait for redress in the usual way of ap- 
peal, for in twenty minutes the mischief would 
be irreparably done. 

Second question : “ In all questions of doubt 
or dispute , has the Lodge Deputy the right to 
decide (whether appealed to or not) ? and in 
case he gives a decision, should not the deci- 
sion be binding until reversed by a higher au- 
thority ?” 

Answer : This question, in my judgment, is 
fully answered in section 2d, page 120, 7th edi- 
tion of the Digest and remarks, and section 
5th, page 1 21 ; and there is no conflict be- 
tween the two sections, as may seem to the 
casual reader of the Digest. The Lodge 
Deputy may decide when not appealed to, or 
when questions are not submitted to him by 
the W. C. T. or the Lodge, only when the 
Lodge is working unconstitutionally , or not 
in conformity with our rules and zisages , 
written or unwritten ( rules and usages being 
those of general application, like the signs or 
ritual ceremony). 

In ordinary cases of doubt or dispute , like 
a point of order raised during a session of 
the Lodge, or some member making a motion 


58 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


or offering a paper when not in order, the 
Lodge Deputy or G. W. C. T. has no more 
business to interfere, unsolicited, than any 
other member. In our Order there are cei* 
tain laws, rules and usages which are common 
to all, such as the unwritten w r ork, ritualistic 
ceremonies and Constitution, and in well-de- 
fined decisions in the Digest, binding on the 
whole Order ; and these it is the duty of the 
G. W. C. T. and his deputies to see observed, 
whether the Lodge or any member of the 
Lodge submits questions for decisions, or ap- 
peals to him on them, or not; but in the ob- 
servance of the by-laws of a Lodge, rules of 
order, order of business, and other matters 
which are left to each Lodge to regulate for 
itself, neither that officer nor his deputies 
should interfere peremptorily, or decide ques- 
tions pertaining thereto, without being invited 
by the Chair for said purpose, or having such 
disputed questions submitted to them. 

A large proportion of the “ doubts ” and 
“ disputes ” in our Lodges arise from questions 
of order or local government , which the Grand 
Lodge has no interest in, further than the final 
results of these disputes may lead to injury, if 
not disaster, to the Lodge ; and further than 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 89 


this it is a matter of indifference to the Grand 
Lodge, and its officers representing it, how any 
of these questions are decided. 

As a matter of course, if not decided satis - 
w factorily , any member can appeal, when the 
Deputy and the G. W. C. T., or one of them, 
will have the privilege of adjudicating the case 
as shall appear legal and wise ; so that if the 
final results of these u disputes ” are disastrous 
to the Lodge, it will not be because the Deputy 
has not had the privilege of displaying his 
wisdom and discretion in averting such an 
issue. 

Section 5th, page 121, provides, in general 
terms, how all matters of doubt , in business 
form , law or usage , shall be adjudicated ; 
while the remarks under section 2, page 130 
(for they are the remarks of G. W. C. T. 
Chase, which have been made by law in 
Pennsylvania, and not the decisions of Cali- 
fornia, Wisconsin or New Hampshire), provide 
that in certain cases the Deputy is not obliged 
to w tit until some one appeals to him or sub- 
mits questions to him for decision; for he 
might never have the opportunity to correct a 
wrong if so required. 

In the decision of section 2d, page 120, the 


90 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


reasonable construction of “ informality ” is, 
that it relates to the unwritten work and ritu- 
alistic forms , and that u instruction” relates 
to the Deputy’s correction of such errors in 
our forms and ceremonies as are of a geneial 
nature. 

My answer to the last clause of your second 
question is, that in case a Deputy gives a de- 
cision, it is binding until reversed by higher 
authority, even though given under circum- 
stances when he had no right to interfere, or 
no right to decide, or though the decision is 
wrong in itself, unless such decision comes 
within the scope of remarks by P. R. W. G. 
T. Chase, as found under section 5th, page 
261, 7th edition of the Digest; nor can the 
Lodge criticise it and declare it by vote to be 
wrong. The Lodge or any member can ap- 
peal. 

But a few weeks since a case substantially 
this occurred At a session of a Lodge the 
Lodge Deputy took the chair without any 
right to do so, and one member at first refused 
to recognize him as the W. C. T., or presiding 
officer of the Lodge. This was an error. The 
Lodge Deputy is made, by virtue of his com- 
mission, the representative of the Grand Lodge, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 9 1 


and is the highest authority in the Lodge , in 
the absence of the G. YV. C. T. ; and when he 
decides a question, or takes the chair, prinnt 
facie lie is correct and is de facto the presid- 
ing officer, if not de jure; and it is the duty 
of members to recognize him as such, availing 
themselves of the door of appeal which ever 
opens to such as seek redress. Any other 
course must result in rebellion or anarchy. 

Section ir, page 122, 7th edition of Digest 
(p. 14th, s. 14), having been adopted prior to 
the remarks under section 2, page 120 (p. 
15th, s. 23), must be governed by the latter if 
there is any conflict. 

Seemingly there may be some discrepancy, 
but really there is none. Section 11 starts out 
with the general statement of the manner in 
which questions are decided, followed by an 
affirmation of the remarks under section 2, 
that the Deputy may, and it is his duty to tell 
the Lodge w hen about to take illegal action 
(and informing the Lodge of any proposed 
illegal action is tantamount to making a de- 
cision), and then prescribe what shall be done 
in case the Lodge does not heed the counsel 
or obey the decision of the Deputy. 

Of course, in any case where a Lodge is 


92 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 


working u illegally and, despite the interfer- 
ence of the Deputy, persists in -pursuing its 
illegal course, the only thing the Deputy 
can do is that pointed out in the last clause 
of section n, unless it is one of those ex - 
treme cases of violation of the constitution al- 
ready mentioned in the first part of this letter, 
as the power of taking away Charters and 
punishing Subordinate Lodges is vested only 
in the Executive Committee. 

It is hoped our Deputies will recollect that, 
because they are clothed with a little brief au- 
thority, they are not therefore to forget the 
common courtesies of life, and undertake to 
reign over the Lodges with a sway as absolute 
as that exercised by the Czar of Russia over 
his subjects. 

The W. C. T. has been chosen presiding 
officer of the Lodge, and is made responsible 
for its workings ; and Deputies should always 
appreciate and acknowledge the authority of 
such officer, and yield a cheerful and deferen- 
tial compliance to all his orders. and decisions, 
only interposing his own higher power and 
authority when invited to do so by the YV. C. 
T. or Lodge, unless under circumstances abso- 
lutely requiring it. 



CHAPTER XV 


CORRESPONDENCE. 



HE following two letters, originally ap- 


JL pearing in the Keystone Good Templar , 
cover many important points which very 
properly may be treated under the head se- 
lected for this book. We give them by per- 
mission. 


WHAT SHALL WE DO? 


No Matter Where, Pa. 


r Where, Pa., \ 
January, 1870. ) 


Sister Wright: From your long experience 
in the cause of Temperance, and especially i«i 
the Order of Good Templars, you will please 
excuse the liberty I take in this epistle, as our 
Lodge has appointed me a committee to make 
a statement of facts and circumstances, and 
ask your advice in the premises. Our Lodge, 
No. — , was organized, as you are aware, 
several years ago ; our beginning was small, 


93 


94 THE good of the order . 


we were composed of an earnest, honest, 
simple-minded band of men and women, and 
our only object was to do good, and, if possi- 
ble, aid in the extension of the principles of 
our Order. For many months peace, harmony 
and good order prevailed ; our progress was 
slow, but very satisfactory, and we had been 
. the means of reforming upward of twenty 
persons previously very intemperate, and were 
rapidly gaining the confidence, respect and ap- 
proval of the public at large, and without this 
no association need expect to succeed. 

Unfortunately for us, at this time a family 
with the significant name of Croaker came 
into our town. I am uncertain as to where 
they came from, but that of course was none 
of our business. They are a large family ; 
there is old man Croaker, old lady Croaker, 
and five young men Croakers, and three young 
lady Croakers. They seemed to be respecta- 
ble people, and professed to be religious, and 

they all joined the Church, the largest 

and most wealthy church in town. Some of 
our friends deemed it important to secure the 
Croakers with us as Good Templars, and after 
considerable exertion, we succeeded in having 
the entire family join our Lodge, and great 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 95 


were our rejoicings in view of so large an ac- 
cession of members. But, alas ! our rejoi- 
cings were short-lived. The Croakers began to 
give us trouble in the Lodge and trouble in 
the church from the start. Old man Croaker 
seemed possessed of the idea that it was a 
matter of surprise how the church and the 
Good Templars had attained their present - 
great proportions without the aid of the 
Croakers! Old Mr. Croaker evinced a great 
desire to be elected to a position in the church 
and in the Lodge ; and he not only sought po- 
sition for himself, but likewise for old lady 
Croaker and the whole family compact ; and 
our first difficulty occurred in consequence of 
the old gent failing to be elected presiding 
officer of the Lodge and deacon in the church. 
Old lady Croaker declared that the church 
was all going to ruin, and that the Lodge was 
committing suicide ! Our beloved pastor, who 
has ministered to us in holy things for many 
years without any dissatisfaction, they dis- 
covered was not the man for the times or the 
place; and his excellent wife, too, they found 
fault with on frivolous pretences ; and in short 
they sowed a great deal of discord among the 
brethren and sisters, causing us all much pain. 


96 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

But the principal evil done by the Croakers 
has been in our Lodge. Nothing has been 
done to suit them since the old gent was de- 
feated for office of W. C. T. They not only 
seem and are miserable themselves, but they 
seek to make all around them uncomfortable. 
Every movement of a wise and liberal nature 
-they oppose. We tried to get up a club of 
twenty-five additional subscribers for the Key- 
stone Good Templar, and had it not been 
for the Croakers we would have succeeded. 
They opposed it strongly. Old Croaker said 
he was certain Mr. L. E. Wright was not the 
right man to have control of such a paper. 
He is just that ignorant, and we let him alone 
in his ignorance. If he calls on you, and asks 
to see Mr. Wright, he will perhaps discover 
his error. Old Lady Croaker finds fault with 
the Keystone Good Templar because it 
has no letters in it from Horace Greeley or 
George F. Train. She says Mr. Greeley and 
Mr. Train are the wisest men in all America, 
and any paper they don’t write for is not up 
to the age ! 

The Lodge attempted to raise something foi 
the German tract fund, but the Croakers in 
solid phalanx opposed it, and we were under 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 97 


the mortification of standing alone in the good 
work. Old Brother Croaker says he means to 
go to the next Grand Lodge to set the Order 
right on various points. He thinks he can 
write a Ritual far superior to ours, and he in- 
tends to move the remodelling of all our 
forms, laws and work. He says we are all 
going to smash up if his advice is not taken. 
And so we are in constant hot water with this 
family. What shall we do with them? Is 
there any way in which we can become free 
from their baleful influence ? I could say much 
more, but have said enough. I am sure no 
Lodge is crossed and crushed as is our Lodge. 

When, on suggestion of Brother Chase, our 
noble leader, the Lodges of the State were 
taking up collections in aid of the “Lecture 
Fund,” the Croakers had much to say in oppo- 
sition, and did all they could to prevent those 
who were willing to donate a small amount. 

Lady Croaker finds fault with some of our 
lecturers because they do not surpass Gough 
in eloquence and ability ; and old Mr. Croaker 
is of opinion that the Grand Lodge should 
employ him [Croaker] as a lecturer, and dis- 
charge Roberts, Davidson, Boyce, Brosius and 
Hartman ! Brother Croaker says this would 
9 


98 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

place the Order at once on a safe financial 
basis. 

The Croakers think, in short, that the Order 
is all going to the wall, and they do their best 
to hinder our progress, but still they continue 
with us, and seem in no w T ay likely to leave 
the Lodge until they have accomplished its 
destruction. They have already been the 
means of disgusting away from our meetings 
many who were very faithful until the 
Croakers came among us. 

Sister Wright, what do you advise? I write 
facts, painful facts ; what remedy do you ad- 
vise ? 

Yours, in F., H. and C., 

Many Sufferers. 

No Matter Where, Pa., March 31, 1870. 

Dear Sister Wright: When I wrote you 
some time since giving account of the condi- 
tion of our Lodge, and explaining the princi- 
pal source of difficulty experienced by us, and 
asking your advice as to the course we should 
best adopt, I had little idea that my letter 
would be the humble means of bringing about 
a result that we have long desired. I have 
often heard of the influence of the newspaper, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 99 

and verily, The Keystone Good Templar, 
by the publication of that one simple letter, has 
done for our Lodge what the united energies 
and efforts of our best members could not ac- 
complish. We really rejoice at our deliver- 
ance. 

As I stated in my former letter, the Croakef 
family, father and mother, sons and daugh- 
ters, were the principal hindrances to that 
peace and harmony and prosperity that at- 
tended our Lodge before the Croakers became 
members. They seemed to care for no one 
but themselves, and, unless they could carry all 
their points and plans, were at swords’ points 
with all the Lodge, keeping us continually in 
a very unhealthy condition of irritation and 
excitement. Nothing met their approval that 
they did not introduce, and no matter how 
good the proposition, the Croakers would in 
general vote solid against its adoption, unless 
their permission to introduce the motion was 
first privately secured. Composed as human 
nature is in our region, this style of thing 
would not go down, and the results were as 
stated in a former letter. We had confusion, 
discord and disturbance. 

The week after my letter appeared in The 


IOO THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

Good Templar, the entire family of Croakers 
came to the Lodge meeting, and we all could 
see that there were squalls ahead. At the 
proper time for the introduction of “ new busi- 
ness,” old man Croaker arose, and addressing 
the W. C. T., said he had some important 
business to introduce ; and pulling out The 
Keystone Good Templar containing my 
letter, he commenced reading, and read it 
through. On conclusion of reading he said, 
“ W. C. T., I consider that letter a direct 
insult to me and my family, who are in 
membership with this Lodge, and I call on 
this Lodge to proceed at once to expel the 
writer of that letter, as we are determined 
not to remain in fellowship with any one who 
can write such statements in reference to us.” 
When I heard this, I began to quake and 
tremble lest I should be sacrificed to appease 
the wrath of the family compact. But I was 
soon relieved by the W. C. T. inquiring of 
Mr. Croaker if he wished to bring a charge 
against the writer of the letter, and if he was 
prepared to give the name of the author. 
Then old man Croaker said he had written to 
Mr, L. E. Wright, demanding the name of 
the writer of the letter, and that gentleman 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . IOI 

had sent him back a short and very unsatisfac- 
tory reply, utterly refusing to give the name. 
But said he, Croaker, “ I know who wrote 

the letter : it was no one else than Elder ,” 

naming our excellent pastor, and the chaplain 
of our Lodge, who was present. This at once 
relieved my fears, as I saw the enemy was on 

the wrong scent entirely. Elder at once 

arose and in his usually mild and kindly 
manner stated that he was not the writer of the 
letter, neither did he know who w'rote it. This 
was a stunner, and it took the compact back 
considerably, the W. C. T., in the mean time, 
intimating that Mr. Croaker was out of order. 
Just here old lady Croaker arose, and in a 

towering rage said: “If Elder didn’t 

write it, then it was written by Bro. ,” 

naming an excellent member of much ability 
with the pen, one of the class leaders in the M. 

E. Church. Brother is somewhat quick 

of temper, and he at once arose and denied the 
authorship, but added, “ If I was the writer of 
that letter, I would not be ashamed of it ; for 
I consider it was all true and all called for.” 
At this there was some stamping of feet, which 
the W. C. T. at once checked ; when Croaker’s 
eldest daughter got up and said in a sharp key, 


102 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

“ Father, let’s go ! I wouldn’t stay here an- 
other minute !” Then the whole tribe arose 

and made for the door, but Jake , who 

acted as W. I. jG., would not allow them to 
pass, as they were somewhat informal and 
irregular in movement. Then the old man 
turned and said: “We wish to dissolve all 
connection with this Lodge, and desire to 
withdraw from it.” The W. C. T. then said : 
“ What is the pleasure of the Lodge?” A 
brother moved that the request be at once 
granted if the parties were clear of books 
of F. S. ; and thus we were delivered of the 
Croaker incubus. As they descended the 

stairs, Brother , the class leader, arose 

and proposed that we sing “ Praise God from 
whom all blessings flow,” etc., which was 
done with no ordinary energy, and we now 
anticipate peace and prosperity again. 

I would add that since that letter appeared, 
The Keystone Good Templar is looked 
upon as our deliverer, and we are preparing 
to send you a club of at least thirty additional 
names. Many thanks for what you have done 
for us. We are once more a united, happy 
band of workers, with no disturbing elements. 
We have been taught wisdom by the Croakers, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 103 

and let young Lodges elsewhere learn a lesson 
by what we have suffered. Our mistake was 
in ever admitting such disputatious, conceited, 
proud creatures into our Lodge. Because 
they appeared respectable we thought them 
suitable persons to receive. It will always be 
found that vain and proud people out of a 
Lodge will exhibit their pride and vanity to a 
tenfold degree in the circumscribed limits of 
our little Lodge-rooms. We should aim to 
secure the co-operation of the wise, the good, 
the virtuous, the humble, the modest and the 
unpretending. Such members are a power ; 
but the presence of the elements of self-seeking 
or sham, hollow pride and conceit, only act as 
poisons and irritants. Take our Lodges in the 
rural districts, for instance, where the honest, 
industrious and intelligent farmers and the 
members of their households are largely repre- 
sented among the members, and common sense 
prevails, how pleasant the meetings, how pleas- 
ing the results ! How good and how pleasant 
the sight where brethren dwell together in 
unity ! Let us one and all work for this result. 

Yours in F., H. and C. 






CHAPTER XVI. 


VISITING. 



UR greatest strength lies in our f rater- 


V^/ nity. In addition to all the elements 
that so strongly cement other fraternal organ- 
izations, we have before us one of the grandest 
objects that can enlist the sympathy of human- 
ity. We strive, we hope all our efforts, all our 
plans, will culminate in the redemption of our 
race from the foe “that biteth like a serpent 
and stingeth like an adder.” To fight an enemy 
so delusive, insidious and powerful, and that 
knows how to use well every social art to 
strengthen his domain, with any hope of suc- 
cess, requires the closest fraternity and unity 
of sentiment and action. Our friends cannot 
be too closely knit together, and every element 
in our workings tending to this great end should 
be most assiduously cherished. 

Our members should visit often other Lodges, 
and always when travelling embrace every op- 


104 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. I05 


portunity to attend meetings of Lodges in 
places where they may be temporarily sojourn- 
ing. Lodges, as such, or large delegations from 
Lodges, should visit neighboring Lodges, and 
these visits should be and will be reciprocated. 
There is a power for good in visitation. Each 
participant, whether visitor or visited, receives 
an inspiration that vitalizes anew his mental, 
moral and social organism, and induces more 
vigorous warfare than ever against the cohorts 
of alcohol. We are interested in each other’s 
work, and strengthened by another’s word of 
encouragement and expression of fraternal 
sympathy. 

Let visitors be warmly welcomed in the 
Lodge-room. The Marshal, in his installation 
charge, is enjoined to introduce visitors. Of 
course when they are introduced in form, call- 
ing up Lodge and using ceremony laid down 
in the books, that officer will discharge his du- 
ties in the premises ; but always when a visitor 
is announced at the door, as a matter of good 
taste and a pleasant welcome, let the Marshal 
step to the door and accompany the visitor to 
the place for salutation, and thence to a seat. 
We have seen visitors enter strange Lodges 
alone, look all around the room for the P. W. 


106 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER . 

C. T., and perhaps make the salutation to the 
Chaplain, and then have considerable difficulty 
in finding a seat. This, of course, is very em- 
barrassing, and the impression made by such a 
stumbling, hesitating and mortifying entrance 
cannot be removed by any amount of subse- 
quent attention. It is embarrassing for any 
one to enter a strange Lodge-room, however 
much they may have visited, and it is particu- 
larly so with timid, shrinking members, who, 
perhaps, have never before been in any other 
Lodge than their own. A very little politeness 
on the part of the Marshal will dissipate all 
embarrassment, and render visiting members 
as much at home as in the circle of their most 
intimate friends. 

Dear brothers and sisters, visit each other 
often, giving each other the good word of sym- 
pathy and cheer, and the happy results will 
everywhere surprise you. 



i n.i>iu bm: ,n.t-.;<.p;r;-J 


CHAPTER XVII. 

BALLOTING FOR CANDIDATES. REASONS FOR 

ALLOWING FOUR NEGATIVE VOTES TO RE- 
JECT. 

A LLOWING four negative votes to reject 
a candidate meets with much objection 
among people where the majority is allowed 
to rule ; and most of our membership fail to 
see why the election of candidates should be 
placed on any different basis than the ordinary 
subjects of legislation in our Order. Why 
should four negatives defeat an application for 
membership, when a majority only can defeat 
ordinary plans for the prosecution of our work ? 
F requently at the sessions of our Grand Lodges, 
and the P. W. G. Lodge, memorials are sent 
up and the subject discussed in all its bear- 
ings. 

The reasons for excepting admission to mem- 
bership from the ordinary rules of a majority 

107 


108 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


vote are apparent, and we believe this feature 
is the rock of our safety and purity as an 
Order. 

With all ordinary questions presented, for the 
consideration of a Lodge, each member is pre- 
sumed to be familiar, and hence prepared to 
vote intelligently, and if in any this presump- 
tion is too violent, the question being open to 
and susceptible of discussion, all uninformed 
will be readily enlightened. In the election of 
members, from the very nature of the case, all 
can neither be acquainted with the character 
of the applicant, nor can the dark phases of 
such character be discussed so as to enlighten 
the uninformed. Ten affirmative votes in the 
dark should not weigh a moment against a 
single one cast amid the effulgence of light. 
A Dutch magistrate of some note in one of the 
interior counties of Pennsylvania was called to 
hear a case of murder. One good and reliable 
witness testified positively to the commission 
of the deed by the prisoner, while three testi- 
fied they saw nothing of the kind. The evi- 
dence of the three overbalanced the one in the 
opinion of the justice, and the prisoner was 
discharged. In the reports of this case, re- 
nowned in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. IO9 


we are not informed how much the defence 
would have been strengthened if fifty had come 
forward ready to testify that they did not see 
the person commit the deed. 

Applicants may have hidden springs, vicious 
and impure in nature, and but few can know 
them ; and those who do are unwilling to 
herald their knowledge, or even mention it in 
Lodge meeting, or perhaps to their most inti- 
mate companions. With our system it is not 
necessary. Silently, but most effectively, can 
their knowledge of unworthiness now save the 
Lodge from dangerous contact. 

True, this safeguard is sometimes abused. 
A number of members form a so-called ring 
or conspiracy to keep out certain applicants 
without any just cause, possibly from personal 
feeling, or to retaliate for some friend who has 
been rejected, or from mere motives of mis- 
chief. When this becomes apparent, it should 
be promptly punished. No offence against the 
Lodge can be graver, and its punishment should 
be commensurate therewith. 

In voting for members, personal feeling 
should not influence us. The prerogative of 
casting a black ball should only be exercised 
when, by the admission of the applicant, we 
10 


IIO THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

feel that the purity and safety of the Lodge is 
in jeopardy. 

A man that had lived in deadly enmity with 
another united with the Masonic Order. On 
entering, almost the first brother to congratu- 
late him was this enemy. The newly-initiated 
inquired how many it required to reject a can- 
didate? “ One,” was the reply. The initiate 
put out his hand, gave his congratulating bro- 
ther a most hearty, fraternal grip, and said he 
never before understood the power of Masonry. 
He had just found the true secret of its grand 
fraternal mission. 

So in our Order, fraternity of spirit, and a 
high regard for the principles upon which we 
are founded, should absorb all personal enmi- 
ties or dislikes which may have existed when 
we are called upon to exercise the prerogative 
of secret ballot for membership. 

We trust no one will be restless to change 
this feature of our organization, or ever again 
feel as though the admission of members 
should be made as easy. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 


INFLUENCE OF DEPUTIES. HOW IT IS FRE- 

QUENTLY FRITTERED AWAY IN IDLE WRAN- 
GLING OR MEDDLESOME INTERFERENCE. 

E VERY Good Templar is responsible for 
his influence, as much so as for any ma- 
terial interests that have been committed to his 
care. When he pledges himself to do all he 
can to advance the cause of temperance, he 
promises to devote his time and influence, as 
well as to give his means, to the great reform. 
It is his duty to be so circumspect in his move- 
ments as to increase the confidence of others, 
and thus increase his influence and power for 
good. To try and educate ourselves so as to 
reach the convictions of men, and thus sway 
them for good, is not only our privilege but 
duty ; and as in the providence of God this 
great work of humanity must be done by us as 
His instruments, He will abundantly bless all 

111 


1 12 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


efforts of ours tending to acquire power to 
persuade and move men for good. 

Lodge deputies in our Order are appointed 
with special reference to their prudence, judg- 
ment and influence. They are selected as the 
leading persons in their Lodges, and by the 
nature of the office they hold, are expected to 
be first in pushing forward all enterprises in 
the interest of our reform. The fact that this 
officer represents the Grand Lodge, gives him 
prestige, and clothes him with additional in- 
fluence for good. 

But how many who serve our Order in this 
capacity lose their influence with their Lodges, 
and hence their power to serve the Order? 
Some deputies think they must always be on 
the floor in the character of a critic, finding 
fault with all that is done. Every departure 
from our rules, however slight, must be met 
by a decision from the Lodge deputy, and if 
the W. C. T. or Lodge do not agree with the 
deputy, the latter feels the dignity of his posi- 
tion compromised, and he must enter his au- 
thoritative protest, and report or appeal to the 
G. W. C. T. 

When any question arises, he must always 
talk, and lest the Lodge will not appreciate the 


THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. II3 


importance of the office he holds, must let 
them understand that it is of no use for the 
members to devise any measure without first 
consulting his opinion. He treats matters of 
little moment, that concern neither him nor the 
prosperity of the Lodge, with the same amount 
of speeches, and same number of protests and 
vehement warnings, and invokes his authority 
as a judicial officer as gravely as when some 
great question arises that really does strike at 
the vitality of the Lodge or the Order. 

The result is that the members become dis- 
gusted with the deputy’s constant interference, 
and instead of seeking his counsel, they dread 
to see him rise in his place to speak or make 
a decision. Like the boy that cried, “ Wolf, 
W'olf !” our deputy has been so constantly croak- 
ing and protesting that the members do not 
know when matters of real importance do 
arise, and having lost all regard for his opin- 
ions, he fails to command respect for his de- 
cisions w r hen really important. 

In our legislative experience, men w r ho 
entered the halls with reputation for ability, 
and whose first efforts were calculated to com- 
mand the closest attention, and whose opinions 
were at first regarded of value, have retired 
10 * 


1 14 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 


bereft of all influence, and could hardly com 
mand sufficient strength to pass the most insig- 
nificant local measure. Imagining that ability 
could only be evidenced by constant display of 
themselves, they were always on the floor, hav- 
ing their say on every question arising before 
the body. 

We know it is difficult to pursue the golden 
mien that shall retain and increase the respect 
of others, therefore deputies “ should be wise 
as serpents and harmless as doves.” 

So many cherish such strong wills that they 
meet constant friction in the administration of 
their duties. We ought to be willing that 
other plans than our own should be sometimes 
adopted, and a deputy needs sometimes to have 
the opportunity to come out and frankly ac- 
knowledge his error , that he may retain the 
confidence of the Lodge. The dignity of any 
position may sometimes be better represented 
in yielding our opinions to others than in stick- 
ing obstinately to our own. 


THE END. 


HISTORY OF THE 

INDEPENDENT 

ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


S. D. HASTINGS, 
p. r. w. a. T. 


1885. 


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HISTORY OF THE 

ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


If all who read this paper could read the his- 
tory of the Order in the Centennial Temperance 
volume of 1876, written by the Hon. Simeon B. 
Chase, my present task need be nothing more 
than to trace the history of the Order from 1876 
to 1885. But as many will see this who never 
saw that, it will be necessary to go over, to some 
extent, the ground covered by Mr. Chase, and 
in doing so, I shall offer no apology for borrow- 
ing largely from his able paper. When I make 
quotations, without giving credit, it will be 
understood that I am quoting from Mr. Chase’s 
history, contained in the Temperance Centennial 
volume of 1876. 

The Good Templar Order is strictly a 

( 117 ) 


1 1 8 HISTORY OF THF 

f fi r TftfyrO qjft movt >l tmtPP^-4A9 u ndi t<v*IA 

TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATION. 

It has no other purpose in view. It is not a 
beneficiary society. Its sole purpose is to de- 
liver the land and the world from the curse of 
intemperance. 

Its platform of principles, adopted many years 
since, is thorough and radical. No temperance 
organization in this or in any other land, has 
ever erected a higher standard. 

Its principles are thus stated : 

1. Total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, 
as a beverage. 

2. No license in any form, or under any circum- 
stances, for the sale of such liquors as a beverage. 

3. The absolute prohibition of the manufacture, 
importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors, for 
such purposes, —prohibition by the will of the peo- 
ple, expressed in due form of law, with the penalties 
deserved fer a crime of such enormity. 

4. The creation of a healthy public opinion upon 
the subject, by the dissemination of truth in all the 
modes known to an enlightened philanthropy. 

5. The election of good, honest men to administer 
the laws. 

6. Persistence in efforts tc save individuals and 
communities from so direful a scourge, against all 
forms of opposition and difficulty, until our success 
is complete and universal. 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. ^9 

After the u secession ” from the Order in 1876, 
of which I will speak hereafter, three additional 
planks were added to the platform of principles, 
as follows : 

7. The admission to membership in the Order, 
goes on the idea of privilege, and not right ; rights 
not attaching until after admission. 

8 . That all mankind are equally privileged to 
apply for membership in the Order, and all may be 
admitted who can pass the ballot in Subordinate 
Lodges, and the chartering power of Grand Lodges, 
and only those. 

9. That the questions of race, language, or nation- 
ality, have nothing to do with membership in our 
Order, there being in the fundamental principles 
underlying the Order, no discrimination for, or 
against the one or the other, all standing alike in 
matters of privilege,' outside or inside the Order. 

NO LICENSE — PROHIBITION. 

Tkus it will be seen we endeavor to stnKe at 
tbe root of the evil, by making it an outlaw , 
wherever it is met. As the use of alcohol in any 
form or degree as a beverage, is dangerous and 
ruinous, and hence immoral, we oppose any 
scheme by which the State is to give legal sanc- 
tion to the traffic ; and as it has, or should have, 
no status in morals , so we would allow it none 
in law. . . .We defy the wisdom of any leg- 


120 


HISTORY OF THE 


islative body to frame a license law that is not 
fraught with the most glaring inconsistencies, 
and a disgrace to a statute-book ; and while 
ostensibly designed to place the traffic under 
wholesome restrictions, and to throw around 
society some measure of protection from the terri- 
ble evils consequent upon the use of intoxicating 
drinks, the vender under such law laughs in the 
face of and practically defies the judicial author- 
ities, while he daily draws thousands into the 
maelstrom of destruction. For these reasons the 
Good Templars oppose the manufacture and sale, 
for use as a beverage, of all intoxicating drinks, 
in any form or quantity. We believe the license 
system a device to quiet the moral nerves of our 
country, while Antichrist can operate with impu- 
nity in leading his victims to ruin. 

OUR PLEDGE OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE — WHAT 
IT MEANS. 

Total abstinence from all that intoxicates, is 
construed by our organization to exclude the use 
of sweet cider and unfermented wine, or the juice 
of the apple, grape, and berry, in any state, as a 
beverage. 

To maintain so high a standard, especially so 
far as pertains to the use of sweet cider, has re- 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


121 


quired great firmness and unswerving adherence 
to principle 

Thus our Order occupies the highest possible 
ground ; and we exclude from our sideboards 
and tables, and prohibit in all forms, the use of 
sweet cider as a beverage. 

PERPETUITY OF THE PLEDGE. 

Again, Good Templars are pledged to total 
abstinence for life — a feature not in all temper- 
ance pledges. 

We make the pledge of total abstinence the 
essence of the whole thing, and upon this, hin- 
ges our work in every department of reform ; 
and hence to restrain men from breaking it, 
when once made, is our great end and aim. 
. . . . Thus stands, written upon our colors 

in golden characters, Lifelong is the Good Tem- 
plar's Pledge ; and we trust that no hand may 
ever succeed in blotting it out from our standard 
or in tarnishing its lustre. 

THE ORDER AS AH EDUCATOR. 

Our Order has peculiar advantages as an edu- 
cator. 

Our first and paramount object has ever been 
to bring the young of both sexes into the fold 


122 


HISTORY OF THE 


of the Order, to be trained up under the guid- 
ance of their parents and older friends, in the 
principles of strict total abstinence, that, when 
the next generation comes upon the stage of 
action, the ruling and motive part of society 
will entertain healthy sentiments and practice 
temperance. 

The social advantages of the Order are great. 
The entire family can here meet around one 
common altar. 

The youth of both sexes can here find genial 
hearts with which they can mingle, safe and se- 
cure from the taint they might receive in other 
circles. No organization can fail to become 
more refined by the presence and influence of 
woman ; and as she fills many of the offices in 
our Lodges, and may be admitted to all, her in- 
fluence is greater than in other societies com- 
posed of both sexes. The advantage to the 
young, in this respect, is very great. 

Meeting from week to week, the society of 
the refined, noble-hearted, and intelligent ; lis- 
tening to the conversation, and receiving from 
all a kindly word and pleasant smile, cannot 

fail to be potent for good Young 

men may safely and pleasantly pass an evening 
here in the society of young ladies, while no 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS . 


123 


temptation to drinking or gambling is placed in 
tlieir way. If a young man just eutering an 
active life, and away from home, is a Good Tem- 
plar, he may find friends to help him in the 
midst of temptation, and by these regular and 
frequent meetings with others, to talk and labor 
for temperance, he is strengthened, and perhaps 
saved. 

No matter how high or low may be his social 
standing, he may at any time find a pleasant and 
safe circle in which to spend a lonely evening, 
and enjoy the benefits of the best society, to 
which otherwise, perhaps, he could not gain ac- 
cess. 

OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM. 

Our financial system, as connected with our 
sustentation and active operations, is one of our 
strongest bonds to keep us alive and together^ 
and hence effective. 

To keep the machinery of our organization 
running, to print and circulate tracts and papers^ 
and to sustain the lecturer in the field, each mem- 
ber contributes alike, rich or poor, the fees and 
dues being placed so low as to be within the reach 
of all j and upon the regular and prompt pay- 
ment of such dues, depends our right to be pres- 


124 


HrSTORY OF THE 


X 


ent at the meetings. Thus each member feels 
and knows that he contributes the same as any 
other to the support of the Order, and that upon 
him rests the same responsibility, and to him is 
due equal credit. Each one knows that the 
vitality of his membership is indissolubly con- 
nected with the prompt payment of his dues j 
hence the actual supporting and advancing of 
the cause, and vitality of membership, depend 
one upon the other. And as the interest we feel 
in the prosperity of a cause is very apt to be 
measured by the amount of our investment in it, 
and the regularity with which we attend to it, 
no more zealous, active, and faithful laborers 
can be found in this noble reform, than the Good 
Templars. 

history. 

The Order originated in Central New York 
in the summer of 1851, and in the course of a 
few years spread into Canada and some ten or 
twelve of the States of the Union, The Grand 
Lodge of New York was recognized as the head 
of the Order until May, 1855, when representa- 
tives from ten Grand Lodges, viz., New York, 
Pennsylvania, Canada, Iowa, Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio, 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


I2 5 


met at Cleveland, Ohio, and organized the Right 
Worthy Grand Lodge, the supreme head of the 
Order. 

The Order has since spread all ovor the civil- 
ized world, and now exists in every State and 
Territory of the United States ; in every Prov- 
ince in Canada, including Nova Scotia, New" 
Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, New Found- 
land, Manitoba, and British Columbia ; in Eng- 
land, Scotland, Wales and Ireland ; in Norway, 
Sweden, and Denmark, and in various other 
countries in Europe ; in India, China, and 
Japan; in Africa; in Australia, New Zealand, 
and Tasmania ; in the Sandwich Islands, and 
in many other Islands of the Ocean. 

The ritual of the Order has been translated 
into some ten or twelve different languages. 

In all parts of the world the same ritual is in 
use, the same songs are sung; the members of 
the Order everywhere enter their Lodge-rooms 
•with the same password, the password being 
changed all over the world every three months. 

A Good Templar would be just as much at 
ease in a Lodge-room in China, in Africa, or 
New Zealand, as he would at his own home. 

Since the origin of the Good Templars, more 
than five millions of persons have been initiated 


126 


HISTORY OF THE 


V into the Order, and have listened weekly to its 
j[ total abstinence teachings. Of this number, 
j| probably not less than four hundred thousand 
f were hard drinkers ; and of these, at least two 
I hundred thousand have kept their pledge, and 
* have become active laborers in the reform. The 
present membership of the Order is over three 
hundred thousand ; and including those who 
seceded in 1876, and who still claim to be Good 
Templars, will probably exceed five hundred 
thousand. 

The Good Templar’s pledge being for life, 
there are hundreds of thousands now disconnect- 
ed with the Order, who are true to their pledge, 
and earnest advocates of the temperance cause. 

Three sessions of the R. W. G. Lodge, the 
supreme head c f the Order, have been held in 
Canada : that of 1858, in Hamilton ; that of 
1865, in London ; and that of 1885, in Toronto. 
The session of 1873 was held in London. Eno-- 

' o 

land, and fifty-seven persons crossed the Atlan- 
*> tic to be present at the meeting. It was one of 
the most interesting meetings of the body ever 
held. The delegates from this side of the At- 
lantic addressed large audiences in most of the 
large cities of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 
The largest halls were filled to overflowing and 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 127 

tlie most respectful attention was given to the 
different speakers. 

In November, 1874, S. D. Hastings, of Wis- 
consin, was sent as a missionary to visit the 
Order in the Sandwich Islands, Australia, New 
Zealand, and Tasmania. 

He spent about fifteen months on his mission, 
visiting all the cities and most of the large towns 
in Australia, and everywhere addressed large 
audiences in advocacy of total abstinence and 
prohibition. On his return in 1876, he reported 
the existence of eight Grand Lodges in Australia, 
with an aggregate membership of between 
thirty-five and thirty-six thousand. In his re- 
port to the K. W. G. Lodge, Mr. Hastings said : 

The spirit of the Order in all the Colonies is good. 
The Grand Lodges are officered generally with able, 
good, and true men and women, w T ho seem to appre- 
ciate the importance of the work in which they are 
engaged, and who are doing what they can to car- 
ry it forward I am painfully conscious 

that as an organization we are far from doing our 
full duty anywhere ; that our Order in no locality is 
exerting the influence which it can and ought to 
exert ; still I am under the opinion that we do not 
realize how much good we are actually accomplish- 
ing ; that we do not often enough consider what we 
have done, and hence fail to derive that stimulus to 
increased exertion that is afforded by the conscious- 


128 


HISTORY OF THE 


ness that we are really succeeding in some fair meas- 
ure in the accomplishment of what we have under- 
taken. In all my travels in different lands, I have 
never met with a Good Templars’ Lodge, let it have 
been ever so small and weak, that had not accom- 
plished vastly more than enough to compensate for 
all the time and money and effort that had keen em- 
ployed in establishing and sustaining it ; while in 
hundreds of cases the good accomplished was so 
marked and tangible as to be acknowledged by all, 
including the strongest opposers of the Order. I am 
sure our brothers and sisters at the Antipodes are 
doing a good work, and all things considered, the 
Order there will compare favorably with the Order 
in any other part of the world. 

The annual sessions of the international body 
of Good Templars have been held as follows: 
First session, 1855, Cleveland, Ohio (organiza- 
tion) ; second session, 1856, Louisville, Ky. ; 
third session, 1857, Chicago, 111. j fourth session, 
1858, Hamilton, Canada ; fifth session, 1850, 
Indianapolis, Ind. $ sixth session, 1860, Nash- 
ville, Tenn. ; seventh session, 1861, St. Louis, 
Mo. j eighth session, 1862, Detroit, Mich. ; ninth 
session, 1863, Chicago, 111. j tenth session, 1864, 
Cleveland, Ohio ; eleventh session, 1865, Lon- 
don, Canada j twelfth session, 1866, Boston, 
Mass, j thirteenth session, 1867, Detroit, Mich, j 
fourteenth session, 1868, Richmond, Ind. ; fif- 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


129 


teenth session, 1869, Oswego, N. Y. ; sixteenth 
session, 1870, St. Louis, Mo.; seventeenth ses- 
sion, 1871, Baltimore, Md. ; eighteenth session, 
1872, Madison, Wis. ; nineteenth session, 1873, 
London, England; twentieth session, 1874, Bos- 
ton, Mass. ; twenty-first session, 1875, Bloom- 
ington, 111. ; twenty-second session, 1876, Louis- 
ville, Ky. ; t(venty-third session, 1877, Portland, 
Maine ; twenty-fourth session, 1878, Minneap- 
olis, Minn. ; twenty-fifth session, 1879, Detroit, 
Mich. ; twenty-sixth session, 1880, New York, 

N. Y. ; twenty-seventh session, 1881, Topeka, 
Kansas; twenty-eighth session, 1882, Charles- 
ton, S. C. ; twenty-ninth session, 1883, Chicago, 
111.; thirtieth session, 1884, Washington, D. C.; 
tairty-first session, 1885, Toronto, Canada. 

The following are the names and term of ser- 
vice of the several presiding officers of the It. 
W. G. Lodge : James M. Moore, Kentucky, 
1855-6 ; S. M. Smith, Pennsylvania, 1856-7 ; 

O. W. Strong, Illinois, 1857-8 ; Simeon B. 
Chase, Pennsylvania, 1858-63 ; Samuel D. 
Hastings, Wisconsin, 1863-8; Jonathan H. 
Orne, Massachusetts, 1868-71; John Russell, 
Michigan, 1871-3 ; Samuel D. Hastings, Wis- 
consin, 1873-4 ; John J. Hickman, Kentucky, 
1874-7; Theo. D. Kanouse, Wisconsin, 1877-9 ; 


Ijp HISTORY OF THE 

John J. Hickman, Kentucky, 1879-81 ; Geo. 
B. Katzenstein, California, 1881-4 ; John B. 
Finch, Nebraska, 1884. 

Allusion has been made to the fact that there 
was a u secession ” from the Order in 1876. As 
this was really one of the most important events 
that has ever occurred in the history of the or- 
ganization, it deserves more than a passing no- 
tice. 

As an introduction to what I wish to say in 
relation to this matter, perhaps I cannot do bet- 
ter than to quote from a report presented to the 

R. W. G. Lodge at its session in Charleston, 

S. C., May, 1882 : 

The original act of secession at Louisville in 1876 
was one of the most preposterous and absurd ever 
perpetrated by intelligent men. Simply because 
they failed, under pretext of giving the Order to the 
colored people of this country, to repeal the action 
of the previous session of this body, held at Bloom- 
ington, which action actually opened the way for 
the introduction of the Order among the colored 
people, while at the same time it opened the ivay for the 
division of the Grand Lodge of England , in the event 
the majority of the members of that Grand Lodge 
desired to have it divided — because they failed in 
this— and even in their attempt they were acting 
unconstitutionally— about a dozen of the members 
of this body withdrew from the session and pro- 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. i$i 

claimed to the world that they were the original body , 
and that the nearly one hundred members who con- 
tinued quietly to transact the business of the session 
were outsiders and no longer members of the original 
and true Order of Good Templars ! 

If the farce had ended at Louisville it would not 
nave been so bad; but it did not. These men re- 
turned to their homes, and by the grossest misrepre- 
sentation— by statements utterly without founda- 
tion in fact — by concealing facts of the utmost im- 
portance to be known for a right understanding of 
the matter— they induced the Grand Lodges with 
which they were connected to follow them in the 
high-handed and unwarranted course they had pur- 
sued. 

This may appear to be a very strong state- 
ment of the case, yet a brief history of the facts 
will show that it is none too strong. The Order 
existed in all sections of our country, South as 
well as North, and it was not strange that there 
should occasionally arise questions touching the 
status of the colored man in the Order. The 
Order, as an Order, always took the ground that 
it was open to all colors, and creeds, and nation- 
alities. It may be well to call attention here to 
some peculiarities in the organization that have 
not always been made sufficiently prominent in 
the discussion of this question of secession. 

Persons who wish to organize a Lodge of 


132 


HISTORY OF THF 


Good Templars, make their wishes known by 
applying for a charter to the body that has the 
power to grant charters ; if they reside within 
the bounds of a Grand Lodge, to the Grand 
Lodge, if in session ; if not in session, to the 
Executive officers of the Grand Lodge ; if out- 
side the bounds of a Grand Lodge, in some coun- 
try where no Grand Lodge exists, the applica- 
tion is made to the R. W. G. Lodge, or its Exec- 
utive officers. The granting of a charter, or the 
refusing to grant, is a matter entirely at the dis- 
cretion of the body or officers to whom the appli- 
cation is made. If the application is refused, it 
is something they have a right to do under the 
Constitution and laws of the Order, and there is 
no authority to call them to account for their 
action. When a charter has been granted and 
a Lodge regularly organized, the Lodge has a 
right to say who shall be admitted to member- 
ship. Every applicant is subjected to a ballot. 
This ballot is secret, and no one can know how 
another Votes unless he voluntarily makes it 
known. Four ballots against an applicant bars 
the doors of the Lodge against him. If the four 
or more who vote against an applicant keep 
their own counsels, nothing can be done about 
it, and there the matter must end. If they 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS . 


133 


should boast of their action, and should show 
that they had acted from some improper motive, 
such as to prevent the growth of the Lodge and 
thus ultimately to break it up, they would be 
liable to. a charge for acting in a manner unbe- 
coming a Good Templar, and if the charge was 
sustained they could be expelled from the Order. 
From this it will be seen that a colored man 
might be refused admission to the Order, or a 
charter be refused to a Lodge composed of col- 
ored men and women, and the Order, as an Or- 
der, not be responsible for it. 

Any one who is acquainted with the state of 
feeling at the South, knows that there is but 
little association in churches or organizations of 
any kind, between the whites and the blacks, 
and this feeling operated to a great extent to 
keep the blacks out of the Order. 

The Constitution of the R. W. G. Lodge, 
allowed of the organization of but one Grand 
Lodge in a State or country. In order that the* 
way might be opened for the blacks to have 
Subordinate Lodges and Grand Lodges of their 
own, an amendment to the Constitution in the 
following words was proposed at the session of 
the R. W. G. Lodge held in Boston in 1874 : 


*34 


HISTORY OF THE 


After the assent obtained or upon petition of any 
Grand Lodges, charters for one or more Grand 
Lodges, or for one or more Subordinate Lodges uuder 
immediate jurisdiction of the R. W. G. Lodge, may 
be granted, covering a part or the whole of the ter- 
ritory embraced by the charter of such existing 
Grand Lodges. 

Notice of a change in the Constitution of the 
R. W. G. Lodge has to be given one year in 
advance of action being taken. This proposed 
amendment came up for action the following 
year at the session held in Bloomington, 111., 
and was regularly adopted. 

It will be noticed that this opened the way 
for the organization of Lodges for the blacks in 
the Southern States, and it also opened the way 
for the organization of a second Grand Lodge in 
any State or country where a second one was 
needed, and the R. W. G. Lodge thought it wise 
to charter it. 

The Grand Lodge of England had become 
very large, numbering over 200,000 members, 
and there was a very strong desire on the part 
of many of the members to have it divided. 
This was violently opposed by the G. W. C. T., 
Joseph Malins, and others who followed his 
lead. On the adoption of this amendment at 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


135 


the Bloomington session, so strong was the feel- 
ing of opposition that J oseph Malins and Geo. 
Gladstone at once resigned the offices to which 
they had been elected, and were on the point of 
retiring from the session, and they were only 
pacified by the adoption of the following resolu- 
tion : 

Resolved, That the R. W. G. T. and R. W. G. S. 
be requested not to issue additional charters during 
the ensuing year, to jurisdictions other than those 
of Maryland and North Carolina. 

Those were the only jurisdictions where it was 
expected the colored people would be ready to 
organize during the year. The adoption of this 
resolution would prevent any action being taken 
toward the division of the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land during the year. 

Notice was immediately given that a motion 
to rescind this amendment would be made at the 
next session of the R. W. G. Lodge. The facts 
already given should be carefully borne in mind, 
as they furnish the key to the most extraordi- 
nary action that took place at the next session 
of the R. W. G. Lodge at Louisville, Ky., in 
1876. The whole trouble with the amendment was 
that it opened the way for the division of the 


HISTORY OF THE 


136 

Grand Lodge of England , and the real motive of 
the attempted action at Louisville tv as , under cover 
of a desire to help the blacks into the Order , to re- 
peal this provision of the amendment. 

Almost the first business that was introduced 
at the Louisville session, was the question of re- 
scinding the amendment to the Constitution 
adopted at Bloomington. 

On a motion being made to rescind the amend- 
ment, the Rev. Geo. Gladstone, of Scotland, 
offered the following amendment : 

To strike out from the R. W. G. Lodge Constitu- 
tion, Article I., Section 3, the words commencing 
with “ except ” and ending with “ business,” and 
insert the following in their place: “Except that 
in any Grand Lodge territory, where difference of 
language or race preclude united working, a dupli- 
cate Grand Lodge charter may he granted, covering 
the same territory, and having jurisdiction over all 
Subordinate Lodges of the language or race for 
which it is granted ; and in any case where a Gfand 
Lodge excludes persons from membership, owing to 
language or race, its j urisdiction shall, so far as the 
excluded community is concerned, be considered 
unoccupied territory, and the R. W. G Lodge, or 
any Grand Lodge, may mission such portions till 
they have sufficient Subordinate Lodges to receive 
a duplicate Grand Lodge charter, with co-equal 
powers with the Senior Grand Lodge in that terri- 
tory. 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


*37 


It may not be amiss at this point to refer to 
the action taken by the G. W. C. Templars of 
the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, and Wales, previous to the session of the 
R. W. G. Lodge, at Louisville, Ky. 

On the first day of January, previous to the 
session, these officers issued a circular entitled 
u Shall the Negro be excluded from the Order?” 
a copy of which was forwarded to all the Grand 
Lodge jurisdictions in the world. This circular 
claimed to give a history of the action of the 
R. W. G. Lodge, touching the admission of the 
negro into the Order, and the conclusion reached 
by the signers was that the negro had been prac- 
tically excluded, and that the only way to effect- 
ually open the doors to his admission was by 
the adoption of an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the R. W. G. Lodge. 

The circular indicated the kind of an amend- 
ment they desired should be adopted, and then 
went on as follows : 

Should the R. W. G. Lodge accede to this princi- 
ple, our Grand Lodge will remain in connection with 
that body as heretofore. S hould it not unmistakably 
accede at its next session, our Grand Lodges will 
sever themselves from those jurisdictions which vio- 
late the above principle ; while those Grand Lodges 
affir min g it, will be invited to federate themselves 


HISTORY OF THE 


138 

in a provisional international court, analogous to the 
present R. W. G. Lodge. Such new body will be 
asked to dispatch missionaries to the Southern States 
to organize Subordinate and Grand Lodges among 
the colored people, and among the whites who may 
favor the action taken. 

They came to the meeting of the R. W. G. 
Lodge with a demand , accompanied with a threat. 
They demanded the adoption of a certain amend- 
ment to the Constitution, and declared that in 
the event it was not passed, “ they would sever 
themselves ” from those who refused to accede 
to their demands. This was certainly a grave 
error on the part of the British brethren. Be- 
cause (1) in the circumstances in which they 
appeared in the R. W. G. Lodge, there could be 
no fair, candid, brotherly discussion of the ques- 
tions at issue. They presented their ultimatum 
and said, u Adopt this or we leave you.” Their 
minds were made up ; they were not open to 
conviction ; with them it was a foregone conclu- 
sion. (2) Because the members of the body did 
not stand on an equality in the circumstances in 
which they were placed by the British brethren ; 
they appearing as dictators , not as brothers will- 
ing to talk over the matter under consideration, 
and decide it upon its merits. (3) Because it 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


139 


placed those who were really friendly to their 
view of the matter in an embarrassing situation. 
While they would be willing to vote for a meas- 
ure when satisfied of its merits, they would hes- 
itate to do so under a threat ; and (4) Because 
it was calculated to excite the determined oppo- 
sition of those who would naturally be opposed 
to the action contemplated. This is human na- 
ture everywhere. Come to men kindly, in a 
spirit of brotherly love, and they may be in- 
duced to yield tlieir objections j but come with 
a demand, accompanied with a threat, and the 
opposition is intensified and rendered almost, if 
not quite, irresistible. 

It was in such circumstances as these that the 
amendment of Mr. Gladstone was offered, and 
yet so anxious were the members of the R. W. 
G. Lodge to conciliate their British brethren, 
that they smothered their feelings, and gave a 
kind and respectful hearing to all they had to 
say in support of their proposed amendment. 

As before stated, no amendment to the Con- 
stitution could be adopted without a year’s notice 
having been previously given. The only notice 
given at the Bloomington session was to rescind 
the amendment adopted at that time. The 
amendment of Mr. Gladstone introduces new 


140 


HISTORY OF THE 


principles never before even suggested, and pro- 
poses to make the most radical changes of which 
no previous notice had been given. So strong 
was the desire on the part of the majority of the 
members of the body to conciliate the British 
brethren, that had they consented to eliminate 
from the amendment those features that were 
new, and hence clearly unconstitutional to be 
acted upon at that time, the rest would have been 
yielded for the sake of peace and harmony, al- 
though exceedingly objectionable to many. But 
no concessions whatever would be made by the 
British brethren. When urged privately to con- 
sent to some changes in the amendment, the in- 
variable reply was substantially : u No j there 
is our ultimatum ; we will consent to no change 
whatever ; take that or nothing.” 

The claim set up by the British brethren was 
that the negro was excluded from the Order by 
action, or by the refusal to act, on the part of 
the R. W. G. Lodge. This was most emphati- 
cally denied. The R. W. G. Lodge is not a 
body of original jurisdiction. It is mainly an 
appellate court, and can only act upon matters 
of this kind when brought regularly before the 
body. In all cases where the question had come 
before the body, the decisions had been in bar- 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS . 


MI 


mony with the views of those who recognized 
the negro as possessing all the rights of the 
white man in and out of the Order. 

If it had been proved or admitted that there 
were obstacles in the way of the admission of 
the negro into the Order, the proper question 
would have been as to the best way to remove 
those obstacles, and not to come with an ultima - 
turn that absolutely prevented the calm discus- 
sion of the real question at issue. 

Although the Gladstone amendment was so 
objectionable, and although its friends refused 
to consent to any alteration, the body was un- 
willing to vote it down, and leave the question 
in relation to the admission of the negro into the 
Order unnoticed, and hence in place of the 
amendment, adopted the following substitute, 
viz. : 

Whereas, R. W. G. Templar Hastings, as long 
ago as 1866, and such decision was affirmed by the 
R. W. G. Lodge, decided in answer to the follow- 
ing: 

“ Question : What is the law of our Order touch- 
ing the granting of charters for Lodges composed 
of persons of African descent ? And (2) as to the 
expediency of such action ? 

“ Aneiver : There is no law of our Order that would 
interfere with the granting of charters for Lodges 


142 


HISTORY OF THE 

composed of persons of African descent, and my own 
opinion is, that it would he expedient to encourage 
them in every way in our power to protect them- 
selves from the evils of intemperance, and to aid us 
in our efforts to drive intemperance from the land. 
I have a most earnest desire that in meeting ques- 
tions of this kind, the Order of Good Templars may 
take the high ground of Christian principle, and 
trust in God that all will be well in the end. 

u In forming Lodges of colored persons, proceed in 
all cases as though they were whites. I do not under- 
stand that our Older takes into account the color of 
a person’s skin, any more than it does the color of 
his hair or eyes.” * 

That in the year 1873, the R. W. G. Lodge adopted 
the following resolution : 

“ That all Subordinate Lodges within the juris- 
diction of any Grand Lodge, whose charters have 
not been revoked or suspended for a violation of the 
Constitution, laws, or rules of the Order, are enti- 
tled to be recognized and receive quarterly pass- 
word, and that the refusal thereof because of race, 


* This was the first time the question was ever 
presented to the head of the Order ; what higher 
ground could have been taken ? How could it have 
been possible to have opened the door more fully for 
the admission of the negro ? And this action of the 
R. W. G. Templar, was fully and emphatically en- 
dorsed by the R. W. G. Lodge, and that body has 
never taken any action inconsistent with this first 
action. --S. D. H. 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


M3 

color, or condition, will be violation of duty and 
obligation.” 

Thus clearly showing that this R. W. G. 
Lodge has always had its doors wide open to 
all , without distinction of color or condition. 

That the amendment passed in 1875 in the 
following words, to wit : 

Except after assent obtained, or upon the petition 
of any Grand Lodge, charters of one or more Grand 
Lodges, or for one or more Subordinate Lodges 
under the immediate jurisdiction of the R. W. G. 
Lodge, may be granted, covering a part or the whole 
of the territory embraced by the charter of such ex- 
isting Grand Lodges, — 

was not intended in any way to interfere, and 
does not in fact interfere with the eligibility of 
any man, white or black, to membership in the 
Order, but simply enlarges the privileges and 
powers of the Grand Lodges, as indicated in the 
amendment ; therefore 

Resolved , That any provision in the Constitution 
or By-laws of any Grand Lodge, that in any manner 
condemns this well-understood fundamental princi- 
ple of the Order, is absolutely null and void, and 
this R. W. G. Lodge is prepared at any time to re- 
voke the charter of any Grand Lodge that may per- 
sist in violating this or any other law of the Order. 
At the same time this R. W. G. Lodge recognizes 


144 


HISTORY OF THE 


the undoubted right of each Grand Lodge to deter- 
mine to whom it shall grant charters for Subordi- 
nate Lodges. 

That it is not expedient to repeal the amendment 
to the Constitution passed in 1875 as set forth above, 
as this R. W* G. Lodge does not see any reason why 
the privileges so granted to the several Grand Lodges 
should now be withdrawn. 

Immediately on the adoption of this substitute, 
Joseph Malins rose in his place and read the 
following declaration : 

Whereas, The Representatives in the Assembly 
have failed to give the number of votes in favor of 
the ultimatum issued by the Grand Lodge of Great 
Britain and Ireland, expressed in the amendment 
moved by Bro. Rev. George Gladstone, and which 
seeks the affirmation, and provides for the practical 
enforcement by constitutional provision, of the prin- 
ciple that color shall not bar those of African or any 
other race, from the protection and enjoyment of 
the full privileges of membership in any jurisdiction 
of our Order ; 

Therefore , We, the whole of the Representatives 
present from the above-named Grand Lodges, do, in 
accordance with the explicit and positive instruc- 
tions of the said Grand Lodges, hereby withdraw, 
and request this, their declaration, be inserted in the 
Journal of this session. 

This declaration was signed by the twelve 
representatives from the Grand Lodges of Great 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


145 


Britain and Ireland. Those of the number hold- 
ing office resigned their offices, and at the close 
of the afternoon session left the body and did 
not return. They immediately telegraphed to 
England that they had u seceded,” and then 
went to another room and organized, and claim- 
ed that they constituted the only true R. W. G. 
Lodge of the Order of Good Templars, and that 
the nearly one hundred from whom they had sep- 
arated were outsiders, and no longer members 
of the I, O. G. T. l 

It would be difficult to find anywhere the 
record of a more preposterous and absurd trans- 
action! 

If they did not like the Order with which they 
were connected, they had a perfect right to u se- 
cede 1 7 and form another organization, if they 
thought it best to do so. 

But to assume as true, what had no founda- 
tion in fact, that the doors of the Order were 
closed to the negro, and then to attempt to force 
upon the Order a remedy devised by themselves; 
without consultation with their associates, by a 
procedure utterly in violation of the Constitution 
of the R. W. G. Lodge, and then because they 
failed in the attempt, to go out, leaving behind 
them almost the entire body, and set up the 


14.6 


HISTORY OF THE 


claim that they were the true and original body, 
is a procedure without a parallel in the acts of 
intelligent men and women ! Since their seces- 
sion they have attempted to justify their action 
by trying to show that, in various instances, 
obstacles had been thrown in the way of the in- 
troduction of negroes into the Order, or that the 

R. W. G. Lodge, or its executive officers, had 
not lived up to the principles that had been 
enunciated touching this matter. 

Many of the cases presented were pure fictions, 
without any foundation whatever in fact, while 
in some instances, where a little wrong may have 
been done, the wrong was the act of an individ- 
ual or a Subordinate Lodge r or possibly of a 
Grand Lodge ; but the matter had not only 
never been before the It. W. G. Lodge in a way 
to give that body jurisdiction, but had never 
even come to the knowledge of that body in any 
way. 

Possibly the history of this movement cannot 
be more appropriately closed than by giving an- 
other extract from the report presented to the R. 
W. Grand Lodge at its session in Charleston, 

S. C., May, 1882, from which I have already 
quoted : 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 


147 


The injury that has resulted to the cause of tem- 
perance all over the world in consequence of the 
action of the seceders, can never be fully understood. 

It has divided our Order in many of our jurisdic- 
tions, and instead of unitedly laboring for the fur- 
therance of the cause of temperance, they have been 
contending with each other, while the evils they 
were banded together to overthrow were increasing 
all around them ; and this body, representing as it 
does, the entire Order, has been so financially crip^ 
pled in consequence of the secession movement, and 
the great expense involved in our effort to maintain 
the integrity of the Order, that we have been unable 
to do a tithe of what we ought to have done in the 
special line of work that belongs to us to do. 

Probably the disastrous results of the secession 
movement have nowhere been more seriously felt 
than in the Southern States of this country. To 
preserve their consistency, it seemed necessary that 
the leaders of the movement should attempt to do 
something for the colored people ot the United 
States, and from the time of the secession until the 
present, they have had their paid emissaries in this 
country, trying to sow dissension m our ranks and 
to destroy the confidence of the colored people in the 
members $f our Order; trying to convince them that 
men and women who had shown themselves to be 
their life-long friends had suddenly become their 
enemies ; and this R. W. G. Lodge, now in session 
in the heart of the Southern States, wish to give 
emphatic expression to the conviction that the efforts 
of the secessionists of Great Britain to plant their 
bogus Order among the colored people of this coun- 


148 


HISTORY OF THE 

try, while it has done no good, has greatly retarded 
the work among these people ; has tended to create 
ill-feeling between them and those who were dis- 
posed to be their friends, and to aid them in their 
efforts to deliver themselves from the curse of intem- 
perance, and generally to retard the progress of the 
cause in this entire section of the country. 

The result of their professed friendship for the 
colored man has tended greatly to his injury. 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE ORDER. 

During the past twenty years this Order has 
been one of the most powerful and successful 
agencies in carrying forward the temperance re- 
form. The soundness of its fundamental princi- 
ples has given it great influence — total abstinence 
for the individual and total prohibition for the 
State. As a general thing these principles have 
been faithfully lived up to by the members of 
the Order. The work of the Order has been 
mainly educational. The more than* five mil- 
lions of persons who have taken the pledge of 
total abstinence have weekly been instructed in 
the great principles of the temperance reform. 

The ten thousand meetings held each w T eek — 
the more than five hundred thousand held each 
year — serve to keep the subject constantly be- 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS . 


149 

fore the minds of the members, and thus to keep 
alive their interest in the movement. 

This Order has had much to do in creating 
the public sentiment which now pervades the 
land in opposition to the liquor traffic. Besides 
the thousands of Lodge meetings held every 
week, many Grand Lodges have had more or 
less able lecturers constantly in the field, advo- 
cating total abstinence and prohibition. 

Some of the lecturers have been men of great 
ability and eloquence, and their lectures have 
been attended with the most marked success. 
The Order has been instrumental in placing in 
the hands of the people a large amount of most 
valuable temperance literature. In several 
States that valuable work of Judge Pitman's, 
u Alcohol and the State," was placed in the 
hands of State officers, members of the legisla- 
ture, judges of the courts, prominent lawyers 
and clergymen, and other distinguished citi- 
zens. 

Nearly twenty thousand copies of the able lec- 
tures of John B. Finch, in a handsome bound 
volume, have been placed in the hands of the 
people, and have been read by perhaps a hun- 
dred thousand persons. The B. W. G. Lodge 
has a permanent Literature Committee, whose 


i5o 


HISTORY OF THE 


attention is constantly given to the matter of the \ 
circulation of temperance literature. 

Much of the temperance legislation that has ; 
been secured in different parts of the world, has 
been secured through the agency of this organi- 
zation. It has always had within its ranks all 
classes of men and women — the high and the 
low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the 
unlearned — and has thus been enabled to exert 
an influence upon all classes. It has had within 
its ranks two Vice-Presidents of the United 
States, scores of Governors of States, members 
of Congress, judges of courts, members of legis- 
latures, presidents and professors of colleges, 
bishops, doctors of divinity, teachers, bankers, 
merchants, and in fact every profession, trade, 
and occupation has been represented in its ranks. 

It would not perhaps be out of place to claim 
some credit for the Order for what has been 
accomplished in other directions by its active 
and prominent members. The idea of establish- 
ing the National Temperance Society and Pub- 
lication House — an organization that has done 
as much, if not more than any other in pushing 
forward the great temperance reform — originated 
in the brain of a prominent Good Templar — 
Hon. James Black — and to him, as much at least 


ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 151 

as to any other one man, are we indebted for the 
successful establishment of this useful organiza- 
tion. Many of its officers are, and always have 
been active Good Templars. 

The movement for incorporating into the State 
and National Constitutions, amendments pro- 
hibiting the importation, manufacture, and sale 
of intoxicating drinks, originated in the Grand 
Lodge of Wisconsin, and its chief supporters in 
all the States of the Union have been members 
of this Order. 

And the last great movement, the one which 
many suppose to be the one that is to secure the 
final triumph of the temperance reform — the or- 
ganization of the Prohibition party— originated 
aipong Good Templars, and has been mainly 
sustained by them. 

As erroneously supposed by some, the Order 
is not a partisan organization, although one of 
its great objects is to secure the prohibition of 
the liquor-traffic. 

Perhaps the position of this Order on the mat- 
ter of political action cannot be better shown 
than by giving an extract from a report adopted 
by the R. W. G. Lodge, at its session held in 
Chicago, May, 1883 : 


I 5 2 


HISTORY OF THE 


The movements for independent political action 
in different parts of the country, are omens of the 
better time coming, when men shall better under- 
stand the philosophy of political party action, and 
when they will not blindly follow their leaders into 
the camp of the saloon and. its supporters. The 
great work of Good Templars in the political branch 
of labor is to educate its members to vote against 
the saloon at all times and under all circumstances. 
The decisions of the Order, and all its deliverances, 
are in favor of this line of action. 

Appended to this report was the following 
resolution, which was also adopted : 

Resolved, That we rejoice to see movements in dif- 
ferent parts of the country looking to the disruption 
of parties wedded to the dramshop influence ; and 
we call upon all members of the Order of Good Tem- 
plars to separate themselves from all complicity 
with the liquor-traffic, and vote only for such men, 
and with such political party as will favor the entire 
suppression of the liquor-traffic. 

As a further illustration of the position of the 
Order upon this question, the closing portion of 
a report adopted by the Grand Lodge of Wis- 
consin, at its session held in Madison, the second 
day of the present month, is given : 

The Order sympathizes with every movement 
made in good faith to put an end to the liquor-traf- 
fic ; and the Order in this State has looked upon the 


* ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS . 


153 


Prohibition party as a movement of this kind, and 
hence does not hesitate to say to those engaged in 
it, God-speed. 

If the Democratic or Republican party will take 
as hold and aggressive a position against the liquor- 
traffic, the Grand Lodge will hid them a most hearty 
God-speed in all their efforts in this direction. 

In speaking of the influence that has been 
exerted by the Good Templar Order, it will 
hardly be assuming too much to claim some credit 
for aid rendered to the Woman’s Christian Tem- 
perance Union. 

The W. C. T. U. is without question one of 
the grandest and most effective temperance or- 
ganizations — if not the grandest and most effec- 
tive temperance organization — now in existence. 
With its thorough and systematic organization, 
reaching all phases of the great reform, and ex- 
tending all over the land, with its noble and tal- 
ented President, and the peerless band of devo- 
ted women who are laboring with her, the W. 
C. T. Union is one of the most powerful organ- 
izations ever rallied to the support of any moral 
reform. 

But would it have been possible for this or- 
ganization to have done the great work they are 
now doing had not the way been prepared to a 
great extent by the labors of the Good Templars ? 


154 


HISTORY OF THE ORDER . 


At the very start the Good Templar organiza- 
tion placed woman upon a perfect equality with 
man. 

She is eligible to every position in the Order, 
not excepting that of its chief executive officer, 
and nearly all positions have been filled by 
women, including that of the chief executive 
officer of several Grand Lodges ; and women 
have had a training and an experience in this 
Order that had never been previously accorded 
to them, and that did a vast deal in preparing 
them for their labors in connection with the 
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. 

Those who instituted the Order of Good Tem- 
plars builded wiser than they knew. 

The work of this Order is not yet completed. 
Under the leadership of its present efficient chief 
executive officer, John B. Finch, plans are ma- 
turing for making the Order in the future a 
more efficient agency for good than it has ever 
been in the past ; and this Order will continue, 
as it always has been, in the front rank of the 
great temperance reform. 


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